Take a Stitch Tuesday - Combination of Stitches - Week 23

This week for Take a Stitch Tuesday, there was a catch-up week for those who were falling behind. For those who weren't, the challenge was to embroider something that had up to eight different stitches that have been featured so far as part of TAST.

One sampler I did features four different stitches: buttonhole, herringbone, running, and couching. It has a hodge-podge of different elements that represent a trip that Sophia, Olivia, and I took this past weekend to southwestern Minnesota and southeastern South Dakota.



The background fabric represents the prairie (the type of land and plants that are in the area). The fabric with the pienes, birdhouse, and leaves represents camping at Lake Shetek State Park. It is stitched onto the background fabric using the herringbone stitch.

The next section of fabric has dragonflies (which I saw many of at the state park). It is attached to the background fabric using the buttonhole stitch.

There are two types of yarn that are couched onto the fabric - one is red to represent the campfire we started in 35 mph winds so we could make our dinner; and the other is blue to represent staying next to Lake Shetek and the girls swimming in the lake.

The rainbow-colored rick-rack reminds me of happiness and surprise - both which were represented on the trip.

The lace is from my mom, and it represents the parts of the trip that reminded me of my parents and when we traveled to Mitchell when I was a child.

The three flowers represent Sophia, Olivia, and me.



The other sampler has five different stitches: chevron, buttonhole, herringbone, running, and couching. I chose the colors for this sampler and the background fabric because it was a hot and humid weekend. Reds, yellows, golds, and oranges all represented the heat of the day. The blue was the refreshing coolness of the lake; and the green represented the grass and leaves.



As with other journal entries, I included a personal reflection, list of things for which I am grateful, and images that remind me of what happened or what I saw during the week: wind turbines in southwestern Minnesota, the Three Maidens (rock formation) at Pipestone National Park, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, and Native American images (to represent all the Native American sites we visited).