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!

No, no Resolutions

As usual, I have not made any New Year Resolutions, as I wrote in January 2023’s No resolutions. But as I wrote then, I do try and finish a few things off before starting anything new.

I’ve not looked out any old projects yet, just continued with the Christmas tree from last week. It soon got to this……

……. then this. The Rhodes stitch is finished, a tiny one at the top, then a little X-stitch at the very top. It will probably have a gold star over it.

Then to add some beads: I liked the shiny red glass ones, but they didn’t show up as much as I’d expected. Over time, the red plastic ones have come off a favourite red cheesecloth top. I did consider stitching them back on, but the fabric has washed and worn so thin that it didn’t seem worth the effort. They have been kept in a spice jar and have proved just the right bead on a couple of projects. It’s good to re-use / recycle them.

I didn’t want to use them all over, they looked too much, but alternate rows looked fine. They are just laid on below.

I started stitching from the top downwards.

I finished stitching the beads. It all looks very even, which is not at all like our Christmas trees, which have all sorts of different baubles, mainly glass, some very old and precious: my Mum’s, Colin’s Mum’s, even some that were my Nanna’s. Handmade decorations, some mine, some from friends from here and abroad, stitched, wood, glass, felt. Most have stories and lovely memories attached to them. It takes a while to put them up, and nearly as long to pack them all safely away ready for next Christmas. It’s like saying goodbye to old friends.

I’ve got another couple of days before 12th night to finish the star. Then I’ll decide how to mount the full piece, maybe glue round the edges and cut it out…….. or it may wait until late next November or early December to make a decision……. As I said earlier, I do try and finish a few things off before starting anything new……. later in the year……. sounds familiar!