After stitching on the book cover (another WIP), I decided to stitch on a postcard. This was much easier to make holes in. It was one of a set I picked up on my travels; this one is by Jane Rushby, done in Gouache, not a medium that I’ve tried (yet).
It’s not quite realistic and not quite abstract, but somewhat stylised. I love the colours and shape of the leaves.
I started by making holes around some of the leaves and petals. They can barely be seen on the right side, but helpfully show up on the back.
They actually show up more on the photo than when I was working on it.
I used pistal stitch with a variegated floss for the clover and some French knots. I’m not sure what the green threads are (picked up off a sales table somewhere), but they are the right tones for the leaves.
Detail of the clover.
The back isn’t the neatest.
I used the heaviest weight green for the lighter coloured leaves….
….. and the finer greens for the smaller leaves. I decided to leave some of the flowers and leaves unstitched to show the painting. The edge of the postcard is white, not the pink it looks below. A strange winter afternoon light as the sun was starting to go down is my only explanation.
I’ve tried to get in front of myself with this one and not leave it until the last minute.
I picked up Margaret’s which has a garden theme, as does mine. But they look so different, partly with the different starting points, regular squares on a white even-weave fabric for hers and L- shapes on yellow canvas for mine.
This is how Margaret’s looked when I brought it home. She’s asked for colourful and given a whole load of suggestions.
I was struggling to make a decision, then thought of the piece I took to the Seata meeting last week for our first “Show and Tell ” session. It was a piece that I did many years ago, based on a birthday card by Molly Brett. I started it with Pat Phillpot when I was doing a C&G embroidery course, but it wasn’t finished when we moved here 35 years ago. The backgrounds are painted, then free machine embroidery with a thick thread in the bobbin and working upside down: lots of french knots, ribbon embroidery, trapped water lily leaves and gold fish under a plastic bag to give a watery effect over painted silk. It was my first 3D piece, I think.
It was resurrected many years later when I went to a Carol Money class in Scunthorpe, and came out annually for several years when the cherry blossom was out on the trunk road, and the forsythia in the garden. Eventually I realised how much I was influenced by the colours and things I see in nature around me seasonally. The butterflies are from photographs I took myself, printed out on paper and transferred them on to fine silk with Photo Magic. They flutter in the breeze.
I think it finally got finished at Lorna Presly’s Market Rasen group, and ironically Lorna had also gone to Pat Phillpott’s group before they moved up here.
It’s a very different piece of work from how it would have been if it was finished before we moved. Certainly the butterflies couldn’t have been done in the same way, long before domestic computers, and there are other techniques and stitches that I learned along the way.
I thought that I could use it for inspiration, and came across some gauzy yellow snippets from my Grasby sunflower pieces which would make perfect blowsy daffodils. I started with some varying length green perlé stems…..
…… and then anchored down the scrunched up snippets so they look like double daffodils.
Finally I added some leaves and a short stemmed flower.
It’s too early for daffodils yet, but I felt that they complemented the purples and mauves that the others had used being complementary colours.
A happy and healthy 2026 to all my readers, with lots of stitching and creativity.
Lots of sewing both my own work and Embroiderers Guild projects, drawing and watercolour painting, some travelling, plus the day to day stuff that makes up my life.
Two main things for Scunthorpe Embroiders Guild, 1.Traveling books and 2. An exhibition at Scawby Village Hall in August. Both kept me busy.
The theory of the traveling book was we each had a month to do two pages in someone else’s A 5 book, the left hand page the inspiration; photos, drawings, sample pieces and the right hand page a finished piece of work.
This is the most recent two pages that I’ve finished. Gaudi inspire
This is how Sue’s piece looked when I picked it up last month at Seata. The brief was basically do what you want – stitch, colour, square.
Knowing Sue loves Christmas I decided to do straightish lines of feather stitch to look like trees in dark green perlé.
The rows overlapped and became less straight.
Once I’d finished the square I wanted to add some shiny threads – Madeira rayon, metallic and opal, the greens from my three tubs.
They all catch the light and give a subtle little shimmer.
Then I wrote this in her little notebook, which obviously I didn’t proof-read!!
It was then ready to pass on again.
I remembered to take a photo of mine this time. Elaine did the top one. And Alex has had it for two months. It is so pink, but I love it. I so rarely use pink myself.
The one I picked up today is also using gardens for inspiration, but more of that when I get to stitch on it. That’s probably after Christmas now.
A Happy Christmas, however you spend it, to all my readers.
When picking up a stitchalong bag last month at Seata, the autumnal coloured French knots drew my attention, particularly when I read Christine’s brief: please use a similar “autumnal” colour scheme, but feel free to stitch whatever you like in the remaining squares.
I love the autumn colours: orange, rusts and golds, the odd splash of reds, burgundies and yellows. I’m still a big kid at heart and enjoy scrunching through the fallen leaves, and can never resist a conker. When I put my hand in a pocket and find one I picked up weeks ago, it still makes me smile.
I started with feather stitch going diagonally across the square…..
…..in varying weights of perlé, then started changing direction…….
……. building up layers. I’d had fallen leaves in my head as I stitched, but by the time I’d got to this stage I thought it looked like flames. A bonfire? An open fire? Or a wood burner?
I added some rusty coloured rayon over the top, and decided that it did make me think of bonfires, the way the front of you is toasty warm and your back is cold, until you turn round to cool your face, going round and round like a spit roast. Happy times and memories.
I’ve missed a couple of the sessions at “In the stitch zone” this half term, and it’s a project I was really excited about, bringing together my love of embroidery and books. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about a book to use, as I struggled with the idea of damaging one. I’ve managed to overcome that mindset in two ways, one by the idea it will enhance the cover, and two by not using the original book that was my nanna and grandad’s. Many hours were spent on Saturday afternoons and evenings reading it and looking at the many pictures. It is dated 1973.
The one I’m working on is a 1981 edition that I found in a charity shop, marked down from £1.50 to 50p. It was likely to end up in landfill, so although I’m still struggling with “harming” it, it is a better option.
The first thing to do was to make holes where I was going to stitch, which wasn’t easy as the cover is quite thick and sturdy. However, with a self-healing mat inside the front cover and a pair of scribes I started making holes up the daisy stem, then using one of my “special” variegated threads doing Quaker stitch at Alex’s suggestion.
I’d tried stem stitch which was not working well, much better coverage with the Quaker stitch.
I was now back to making more holes, hard on the fingers so best done in short bursts.
And my go-to reverse chain in a much thicker variegated perlé thread (the one I used on my “How does your garden grow” for the “Monthly Stitchalong” for the heavier stem; working from top to bottom here.
The colours are perfectly toned with the cover.
The stitches are barely visible when looking at the whole cover, but the texture feels lovely with my fingers.
This is the inside of the cover, which may be hidden at the end.
The raised surface is more visible from the side at the moment.
I now need to decide how I’m going to do the daisies, and how to make much smaller holes for the delicate grasses; it needs something fine and very strong. I’ve already broken one needle on the stitching.
“Birds, birds, birds” was the title of the worshop that we had with Jan Dowson a couple of weeks ago at Seata.
I’d met the challenge to myself of finishing the slow stitch landscape before Jan came. The last couple of sections at the top…..
…….. and some more stitches on the stone wall at the bottom, and it’s done (apart from deciding how to hang it, probably from a branch).
Going out of the back door the next morning, I saw this skein of geese flying over. I’d heard geese for several days, but this was the first time that I’d seen any this autumn. Later, when looking at photos on my phone, I wondered what it was, because it looked like a line of stitches, and I couldn’t think what! It was only when I downloaded them on to the computer that I remembered, and it just seemed appropriate with the upcoming 3D bird workshop.
Jan had a pattern to trace and cut out, instructions, calico, legs, beaks and eyes for us all. The pattern included some tiny little gussets to attach to the main body and head. We could hand or machine stitch them together. I hand stitched / tacked the head one in place, then pinned the tummy pieces and decided to machine stitch it all. I did the head gusset and started turning it to the right side before doing the tummy pieces, all very awkward and fiddly, and only as I started to pin the two sides of the whole head and body together did I realise that I’d done the head one way and the tummy pieces the other. I decided rather than unpicking it ……
……I would make a feature of the seams on the head. The whole bird was then firmly stuffed before adding the legs. Jan’s husband Derek had made all the legs, twisting wire for the toes (claws)and legs. Tricky, but it seems he’s had plenty of practice. It was fiddly enough to cut them to the right length and twist them together at the top, once they had been pushed up through the holes in the calico, before more stuffing and ladder stitching the tummy gap. Much to my surprise it stood up and was quite stable.
Next the eyes and beak, which has some fluffy bits of feather stuck in where the beak goes in, before wrapping the legs in florist tape: still standing.
Now to start stitching tiny scraps of fabric to the body. I didn’t know what colour I wanted to make him / her, but no prizes for guessing! Time passed all too quickly, and this is the flock at the end of the day.
I had taken other colours possibly to use, but reverted to my favourite greens. It was lucky that we ran out of time, as I had about used all the scraps I had with me. I heard somebody mutter that mine had attitude and looked inquisitive. I haven’t done any more since, except finding some more green scraps ready to continue.
It was a great workshop – thanks, Jan. And it had pushed me into finishing the slow stitch landscape.
I was excited about this project that we started back in September at “In the stitch zone”. Alex had come up with the idea of experimenting with ways of attaching buttons and extending our stitch knowledge.
I’ve loved buttons as far back as I can remember, and spent many happy hours rifling through my nanna’s button box on a Saturday afternoon, also my mum’s tin of buttons which I still have. An old neighbour from when my mum was a child worked in a button factory, and many came from “Aunty Jan”. Lots of mother of pearl buttons in various sizes, and belt buckles, one of which was used on a favourite dress that I made as a teenager. I used to sort them in to colours, sizes and patterns, as well as trying to find enough of the right size for cardigans that my mum knitted, and sewing projects of nanna’s and later my own. Mum also used to take the buttons off anything that was only fit for rags or dusters; so do I. It’s very rarely that I have ever needed to buy a button or buttons for a specific project.
But Alex suggested we used the boring “odd” buttons, as it was more about the attachment than the buttons themselves. Still difficult to decide, but I didn’t give myself much time to deliberate and picked a jar of dull, brown toned buttons…….
…….and amongst them found a wooden one, and then a few more, which I thought would be a good starting point. There were a few unusual shapes. Alex suggested a plain or small patterned fabric.
I settled on this yellow small print, which I thought wouldn’t distract too much from the buttons and stitching, and started with a simple running stitch in brown perlé around the button…….
……..which I whipped and then got carried away with the stitching using yellows, golds and browns.
I found more buttons at home, some of which are made from coconut shells. I linked these back to the long straight stitches with feather stitch.
Also more threads in oranges and yellows, my go-to autumn colours.
I did more feather stitches from the buttons on the right, back up to the chain stitched button at the top. This is the way up that I envisaged it.
I got carried away with the feather stitch, layering shades of orange and browns. At class someone (Carol?) had asked about orientation and, after much turning and assessing, the general consensus was that it worked better this way. It’s more or less gathered here, but only resting on an old pine clock base.
I used several layers of wadding over the glass dome that went over the clock face, and laced it across the back.
The pine had three holes where pegs had attached the glass over the face, and I have used these to thread fishing line through to attach the stitched piece to the wood frame. It was the perfect size for the stitching. I only found it when looking for something else, and it was good to use up something we already had, even though it barely made a dent in the button collection!
So, why were we keeping a clock that didn’t work? Just in case! Its time would come…..
This wek I’ve been madly finishing off / starting things for the Seata meeting.
The monthly stitchalong, I managed to end up with two left to do. I didn’t get Elaine’s until a week ago. She’d had so many ideas and eventually settled on “a vase of stars”. She’d tacked out the stars and vase on dark blue aida, stretched on a frame. She’d also done loads of possible ideas to get folk started. It was a beautifully cold but sunny day, and I didn’t want to lose the sunshine on the fabric!
I wasn’t sure whether to do a star which would be quicker (not much time to do it), but what really grabbed me was the vase. At painting class this week, Jan had a wonderful charity-shop find of a studio pottery vase in blues and greens that she’d filled with flowers to paint, with lots of texture which I thought would transfer in to stitch. I didn’t have a photo, so just started stitching in the middle, couching down some textured threads, trying not to just do stripes the same all the way across, but some diagonal and straight stitches in variegated thread and a metallic mixed with a rayon (bottom row).
Then I used the go-to perlé thread in various shades of turquoise. The top two rows are irregular blanket stitches.
Next I added some big beads at the bottom.
Then a gold knitted yarn, to do a row of running stitches. It shredded horribly, and untwisted, but it had lovely colours, so I couched it down erratically.
More stitching at the top, diagonal stitches, then stab stitches, before I added four beautiful glass beads, then metallic backstitch acoss the top before taking out the tacking line. I did one more row underneath, but forgot to take a photo! I looked at it again this morning and it still needs a bit more, but it has passed on to somebody else, so I’ll do that next month, and fill in the sheet with the stitches I used.
I also had Alex’s to do, and wanted stitches beginning with particular letter for each box. I picked “D” and did surface DARNING inspired by a chapter in “Poetic Cloth” by Hannah Lamb. The first one is in a lovely variegated thread that went with the background colours as requested, and the second one in a pink perlé, which again I forgot to photograph once it was finished!
Nor have I taken a photo of mine, after Elaine has done the first block of “How does your garden grow”. Sorry, it’s beautiful. Next month!
I almost finished stitching the green area before moving on to the turquoisey strip. I used a variegated thread in wavy horizontal lines, then diagonal lines on the pinky and bluey grey areas in another variegated slightly thicker thread.
On the “cloudy sky” area, I used a much thinner blue (light and dark with much longer lengths before the colour changed).
I went to the end of the shiny fabric with my running stitches to give a bit more stability to the fabric.
Then I became more selective on using the light or dark areas of the thread as I neared the top.
It’s nearly there. A couple of areas need a bit more stitching: the wall at the bottom, the lighter green patterned fabric just up from the wall on the right hand side, maybe the french knot and random stitches in the fields above the sheep, and the very top. I should finish it before Jan’s workshop next week, but I also need to do my Monthly Stitchalong piece for then.
debbidipity 