I worked steadily on this project week by week at “In the stitch zone” until the end of the term in July. Alex gave us instructions and guidance with different stitches each week, some new and some with different approaches, her intention being to push us all a little, from beginners to more experienced stitchers.
I’d last blogged about it at the end of June when it hadn’t got very far.
I didn’t take many photos, I’d got so engrossed in the stitching, with Padded Satin Stitch, Couching over String Padding (which was left like this until yesterday), Bullion, French and Colonial Knots, Cup Stitch new to most of us (bottom left, certainly one to remember), Needlewoven Bars and Woven Feathered Chain Stitch.
Woven Picots….
….. Buttonhole Rings on the cream “stone”, Stem Stitch Band over beads bottom right…….
….. Woven / Backstitched Wheels and Fans…..
……..Yorkshire Buttons. I wasn’t sure about the variegated thread for this….
…… but once it was in place it looked just right, picking up colours from other areas.
It still needs more stitching in places, mainly more knots, Woven Bars, Drizzle Stitch, but I also want to add some real shells, etc.; I had fun sorting through my shells for ones with holes in, so that I can stitch them down. They’re not stitched down yet, I’m just getting the feel of how it might develop.
Then I finally did the short rows of the Couching over String Padding. I admit I’d not been looking forward to doing this, but as is often the case it was easier than I’d anticipated! I did a few rows of Feather Stitch. Also I found this strange variegated rayon metallic thread, which as you can see is separating all over the space, and I’ve started to couch it down along the bottom. It echoes the lines of the printing and catches the light. It’s moving on, and has been good to work on over the summer while the weather has been so hot, making me think of the sea and beaches even though we’ve not been. It needs a final push before the weather and the colours change.
I first noticed the changes in the garden a couple of weeks ago when stitching outside. The fresh green of the wisteria was beginning to yellow in places. The fabric and threads I had on the table matched the the leaves perfectly, another new project simmering away for the moment.
The threads I had on the table ready for another new project
The leaves have now changed even more, along with various other subtle and not so subtle shifts in hue in the garden. The heavily laden Rowan trees are now bare, the birds have been feasting on them for weeks, the orangey red berries gone for another year.
It’s now become this
The hips on the dog-roses are now plump and red. The thorns on these are vicious and there is talk of the bushes being taken out, but I want to hang on to them for a little longer for their splash of colour, especially on grey days. They are getting too big where they are, so they probably will go later. If they are cut back before the hips have gone, l’ll use them for rose-hip tea or rose-hip syrup, a real taste of childhood.
The last apple-tree is almost ready for picking the fruit, but the other two were ready weeks ago and don’t keep as well, so we are eating them up first. Neither of them have fruited well this year – a frost just as they were in blossom. This last tree is a bit more sheltered and there are more apples on it than ever. You win some, you lose some.
Almost ready for picking
The blackberries have done really well this year, just the right mix of sunshine and rain for them over the last six weeks or so. Loads in the freezer, stewed blackberries with yogurt for breakfast and the odd blackberry and apple crumble, a good indicator that autumn is just around the corner. The photo shows another lot ready to pick, more to come, and the dried up stems from the picked ones. No more flowers, but the leaves haven’t started to change colour yet.
Ready, coming and gone.
The last few flowers of the rudbeckias are hanging on. Unfortunately some were bashed about in the wind and rain last week, and the yellow petals have gone, leaving the dark chocolate brown cones full of next year’s seeds. The seed-heads and spiky leaves of the red crocosmia have lost their green, and are fading and drying out to beautiful yellows, golds and beiges. The hardy fuchsia will hang on to its flowers for a while yet, but most things are beginning to change.
The changing colours around me will no doubt be reflected in the things I choose to work on in the coming weeks. Already I have picked up a piece that has more yellows, browns and rusts than I have stitched in a while. It was started at a print and stitch workshop at Scunthorpe Embroiderers Guild with Jan Dowson. It’s the sort of piece that gets picked up and worked on periodically. The printed paisley patterns are all slightly different, and I often find I need time to reflect on where to go next, what colour to use, which stitch or stitches to do in each one. Every step is influenced by what is already there, and a desire to have an overall balance. The stab-stitched background can be quite meditative, the repetitiveness calming…… time to consider what next on the paisleys. It can also be done while listening to the radio or a podcast, because having something to do with my hands helps me concentrate (or stops me nodding off to sleep).
Jan Dowson Stitching into Print Workshop
I have also finally plucked up the courage to pick up the Alison E. Larkin, Traditional Techniques Range: Hardanger Infill Sampler. It is so long since I worked on this, before I broke my arm, and before the start of lockdown. I couldn’t even remember how to do the basic woven bar. It was merely a mental block, once I’d braved cutting the threads against the kloster blocks it soon came back. (I went and cut one that I shouldn’t have done, but managed to weave it in so it’s not noticeable, phew.)
I even managed the picots in the middle of each bar after about the third attempt, three good ones and one not quite so good, and by the fourth one I was wondering why it had taken me so long to work it out! (Why is it when there are four to do, one never goes quite right? Mitred corners come to mind, always one slightly dodgy one!)
Infill with picots on woven bars and twisted corners.
So one more little infill, and the central bigger, more complex one to finish.
Two left to do.
I’ve also started my second sock, and more by luck than judgement, it appears as if the colours are actually going to match up at the top, which should mean on the whole sock. Fingers crossed.
Start of the second sock
In all of the projects I have worked on this week I’ve dived into the colours that I am seeing around me.
debbidipity 