September / October Stitchalong

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!

Embellished jacket 8

The Wessex stitchery piece has been attached to my jacket, on the back near the bottom on the right hand side. With it been stitched on Aida and knowing how badly it can fray, I went round the edges with a watered-down solution of PVA, before mitreing the corners and folding in the edges up to the stitching line. I butted it up close to the seam, stitching it on with a Sylko thread the same colour as the Aida, coming up in a hole and going down a tiny amount away, so that the stitches get lost in the fabric. I think it’s straight, although it doesn’t look it on the photo with the way it’s hanging on my tailor’s dummy.

A close-up photo. The colours at the bottom of the piece echo the feather stitch down the sleeve.

Now for the other sleeve: for quite a while I have been thinking of using the leaves that I did for the “filling stitch” project at “In the Stitch Zone”, way back in November 2023. Other things took over, so it only had the one blog post. The split stitch had circles and ovals done on the second side….

…. and then Lattice filling stitch, which was easier to get straight working vertically over a piece of squared paper…..

…….then horizontally with tiny cross stitches at the cross-over points. There aren’t any photos of the finished leaf with the paper taken out and lazy daisy stitches in the squares.

The satin stitch was also finished, but at this stage the Pekinese stitch was abandoned for other projects.

I wanted to have a copy of all the leaves before I started cutting them out. I tried tracing them, and using a light box and a window without much success. Then I realised a simple photocopy would do the job! I think that when I’d wanted to get on with it, I’d not had access to a photocopier, and not done it when I’d got home.

I traced them on to pelmet vilene with the light box and numbered them all.

I did a row of running stitches with a big knot at the beginning round the leaf, cut it out, put the pelmet vilene in and pulled it up to gather it ….

….. and the first one is done. I realised it would be easier to gather and fit in the pelmet vilene if I had a thread with a knot each side of the leaf, especially at the points.

Feather stitch.

I’ve left the ends on this one, they may get used for stems.

I’ve laced the backs and put a little watered PVA on the raw edges.

I need to finish the Pekinese stitch before I do the rest, preparing them all before starting to attach them. (It would have been better if I’d stitched them further apart, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to use them when I did them. It was only later that I found they would work on my jacket!)

Wessex Stitchery 4

I’ve done another row of blanket stitch in the variegated 21st Century stranded cotton.

Then I’ve used 3 strands of a dark and light blue variegated folded, so that both colours are threaded through the needle and the stitching will vary across the row. I’m not sure what it is, possibly a very fine pérle. It’s on a card that I picked up on a sales table somewhere. It’s a simple row of running stitches working horizontally, starting at the highest point of the blanket stitch……

……. and continuing downwards, staggering the stitches so that the rows don’t line up. It looks more like water than sky!

After a couple more rows……

……. I started with a single strand of the lighter blue at the bottom. Then I put in some clouds with a shiny light grey blue randomly at the top, filling in the gaps with a shiny darker blue (both Anchor Marlitt) and a single strand of the darker blue from the variegated card of thread.

It’s finished here. I’m intending to fold in the edges and attach it to my jacket, but forgot to pick that up to do it this morning. It’s all simple stitches, but for me a different way of working, and I rarely work on Aida.

Wessex Stitchery 3

I’ve continued with my Wessex Stitchery this week. I started with Sheaf stitch in a slightly thicker pérle in a yellowy green, more or less following the line of the previous row.

Then there are two rows of elongated cross stitches in pale green pérle, followed by Tête de Boeuf Stitch (bull’s head stitch). Maybe I’ve adapted it slightly and made it in to a definite V ……

……and then gone back and put the “heads” in; you can see the first one on the left. I did tiny ones on the right hand side.

It’s a lovely variegated thread……

…….which is more obvious where I’ve done more on the left hand side. Then I’ve used a greyish blue variegated 21st Century stranded cotton, just one strand for an irregular row of blanket stitch, the other way up / down to the rows at the bottom. One more row, I think, before I start the sky.

Wessex Stitchery

Today at Seata we have had an in-house talk and workshop on Wessex Stitchery from Ruth Neller, including loads of samples for ideas. I’ve only shown two of the samples.

Ruth had broken down some of the samples, so that we could see how the different stitches build up to form the patterns.

The square motifs need more counting and accuracy to make sure they join up properly at the corners .

Many of us had not heard of Wessex Stichery before, but a few ladies had found the book by Gay Eaton on their bookshelves. Unfortunately, it is out of print now and tends to command a high price on the second-hand market when it turns up. Not much had been published on Wessex Stitchery previously.

Ruth gave us an interesting and informative talk before we started stitching. One Mrs M Foster of Bath, born in 1843, was the originator of the technique which uses simple stitches, often text, and done in rich colours. The stitches are combined to make patterns which vary in size and complexity. She was still stitching at 90, and had a well-received exhibition of 30 years of her work. She died at 92 .

Ruth had provided us all with a kit, containing some Aida, quite a high count, (certainly smaller than I tend to work on) and a selection of stranded cotton. I picked this one with the antique colour Aida, with the intention of it maybe ending up on my embellished jacket once it is finished!

I’m not using the stranded cotton as I prefer working in perlé, and so far have only used the browns from my stumpwork acorns from last week.

As any long term readers of this blog will know, I’m not good at counted work. I started with blanket stitch in a zigzag pattern, not counting but just repeating my pattern…….

…….. and it was not long before I made my first mistake and went up instead of down; rather than unpicking I decided to go with it……

…. and ended up with this for my first row.

It made me think of mountains and a landscape, so I stuck with it. The second row in the darker brown (above the rusty perlé), I went off piste sooner, more mountainous. Then I went back and filled in at the bottom with straight stitches, still not counting, just making the pattern by eye.

More of the rusty colour to fill in at the bottom right.

I worked this top row from right to left until I ran out of thread, then started on the left and stitched until it joined up.

I think I’m ready to introduce some different colours and stitches when I carry on….. maybe I’ll even do some counting!

Around the room the work was very varied, both in colour, stitches and patterns used, and once again we were still stitching late in the afternoon. Thank you, Ruth, for all your hard work (fun stitching), research, preparation and kits. It was obvious that we all had a good day!

Kogin / pattern darning

We started a new project this week at “In the stitch zone“. Liz had seen a project in “Stitch” magazine a while back, and had suggested Kogin / pattern darning when Alex had asked for ideas of things we would like to do. Alex had done several samples, including the one below, and found a selection of patterns for us to try.

I chose to work on a beige Aida fabric using a “go to” dark green perlé, thinking that it will go on my embellished jacket (when I finish it!). I had my usual problems with counted work of any sort and following a pattern. I started with trailing the thread from one row down to the next, which made it a bit loopy, and this is only a section of the motif.

I started with a slightly different pattern, but couldn’t work out the spacing between motifs, which wasn’t helped by not knowing how many would fit across my fabric. (I’m thinking cutting it off along the fold line.) After several attempts and making silly mistakes, I decided to start in the centre of the fabric with what is the bottom row below, and working from the middle out to the left, having left enough thread to work from the centre to the right.

I started a new length of thread for each row, working from the middle out to the left, then the middle out to the right. My thoughts were first that if I made a mistake I could correct it more easily and not have to undo it all, and then by leaving the threads I can meander them across the jacket when I get that far!

I have begun to work a little faster now the pattern is beginning to develop. The motif mirror images from the bottom row. One of the lovely things about it is that the back has the negative image of the pattern, which is something to experiment and play with. We’ve got two more weeks on the project, but lots of possibilities for developing it further.