Organisms & Hand Stitching

Organisms & Hand Stitching

When last we met, I had just pulled my Bernina 790 out of hibernation only to find it did not fit my Koala sewing cabinet and so I had to order a new insert. Check, check and check. Who says I’m not getting sh*t done?

New Bernina safely back in hiding so that I could teach my Improvisational Stitching Workshop.

I know all of you want to know how Pat Pauly’s Take 2 virtual workshop went and I won’t leave you hanging. It was all that I’d hoped for and more. Just fabulous. Of course now I’m trying to talk her into doing another one: Line, Shape & Setting. I think I may have persuaded her, and the minute she adds it to her jam packed schedule I’ll tell all of you so that those of you who might like to sign up for it, can.

In the meantime I’m back to my improvisational stitching, Youtube tutorials, working on my next design, slowly chipping away at my Stitching Book, juggling my other various commitments and oh, yeah, life!

I have photos of what I worked on in Pat’s workshop, but it’s still a work in progress, so I think I’ll wait until I have something I love before I show you. Which means that I’ll have to pull that sewing machine out again or use my smaller, travel Bernina, which isn’t as much fun, but will do the job.

Yesterday as I was doing a livestream for my Patrons over on Patreon, I was talking and stitching away, as I do, and then I had this idea to add a piece of hand dyed t-shirt to the linen piece I’ve been playing around with and ended up loving it! I just love when that happens and it doesn’t happen all the time, so when it does, it’s just thrilling!!

Organisms

It reminds me of organisms that have been put under a microscope. I love that!

A Stitching Book: Tell Me What YOU Want to See

A Stitching Book: Tell Me What YOU Want to See

I’m working on a Left-Handed Stitching book. It’s a HUGE project, but I’m determined and am taking it one small stitch at a time. Yesterday I was working on a Threaded Backstitch and so I began to stitch on a piece of linen that I whipstitched some wool shapes onto. Once I had done one example of the Threaded Backstitch, I decided to go ahead and do a Double Threaded Backstitch. And once that was finished I thought – well wouldn’t it be fun to do a couple more, one below the other?! Do you see what I’m having to deal with here? After I finished doing those, the gap between the Double Threaded Backstitches seemed to be calling out for a little something, so I did what anyone would do, and found some beautiful Stef Francis Silk Chenille and decided it was perfect to Couch. Swoon. And then there was a tiny space at the very top and so I stitched a 2-wrap French Knot, which looked like a little tumble weed. Perfection(!) and that made me feel happy. As I stitched, I thought I could hear some Silk Ribbon calling out to me, so of course I had to find it, retrieve it, and use it, because what else was I going to do? Ignore the call? No, I don’t think so! So I made a little cluster of Silk Ribbon Roses to one side. And that’s when it occurred to me. I’m NEVER going to finish this book if I continue to go down every rabbit hole I see.

Double Threaded Backstitch, Couching, French Knot and Ribbon Roses

Except it’s SO much fun to go down those rabbit holes and who knows where they might lead?! Some of my best discoveries have been deep within such holes, which means this book will take a little longer to do than I’d originally anticipated. Plus I’m using lots of photographs to demonstrate each step of each stitch and I intend to show how to end and begin a new thread, in case you run out in the middle of the stitch, as well as how to end the thread once you’ve finished doing the stitch. Those are a couple things I always wish to see, but rarely do in a stitching book and that got me wondering, what about YOU?

Tell me what you like to see in a stitching book. What do you dislike? What do you wish they showed? What do you wish they didn’t show? What about text? Keep it short and simple or do you like longer explanations and even stories? What else? Am I forgetting anything? Tell me. Tell me everything.