Each month, projects move on and off the sewing table to make room for secret projects that I can't share.
This week, I'm working on some upcoming block designs for The FLOCK in the sewing room, and I'm not allowed to share them. That means, the quilting on the pineapple quilt has been put aside temporarily.
Moving away from the sewing machine for this week's article, I moved back to this stitchery project I started a long time ago, that doesn't seem to want to end!
I started it in January 2019, I think, or was it 2020? (Can't imagine why the start date is a blur.) Eventually it's going to be a notions book. It started as an embroidery guild monthly project, and, no surprise, I up-sized it after finding the perfect piece of stitchery cloth. Eventually, it'll be more of a notions case rather than a 'book' featuring zippered pockets inside the stitched sampler cover that will be enhanced with Stiff Stuff interfacing.
I also decided this would be a perfect project to put on a slate frame (it may be the only project I do on a slate frame - I don't love it (the frame), but had to try it . . . once!)
Can I tell you, I think I will have stitched this entire piece twice by the time it's done. As you can see from the photo above, I started with an outline of the front and back covers, and now I'm filling in with a variety of stitches.
I'm sticking with a blue and brown theme (this is a recurring combo for me - -as you may recall, this was also the color scheme chosen for the pineapple quilt project).
At the first of the year, my embroidery guild started a 100-day stitching challenge. The challenge was to stitch at least one stitch each day for 100 days to move projects forward. For my challenge interpretation, I decided that my daily stitch (or two or more) would have to be on this project to meet the goal. The 100 days is up in just a few days. While I'd call the challenge a success - I did make forward progress nearly every day since January 1 - but I may need another 100 days of daily progress to complete it.
I thought I finished the right (or front) stitched panel a while ago, but two spots were really bugging me. The color thread I used for the third or forth row from the top (orange) bugged me. I thought I might get used to it, the more I stitched. I didn't. Over the holiday weekend, I spent some quality time 'fixing' the issue with some reverse stitching and replacement.
Much happier with a darker brown.
A few rows below that (red arrow in the photo below). I removed and replaced a row of stitches that just didn't do anything for me. The new and improved version is shown.
The first photo all the way up at the top of this post is just about where I started at the beginning of this past weekend. Over the holiday, with a couple of long Easter and Passover-themed movies providing background entertainment, I managed to make the fixes on the right side and progress about 2/3 of the way down the left side panel.
These little blue Jessicas (that's the stitch name) near the top of the left side panel seem to want a bead or some sort of embellishment sewn into each center.
So there's more back-tracking to be done, but not in the same sense as backward stitching.
Here's the big picture of both panels (below); each stitched panel section measures about 5x9". It looks a little distorted in the photo, but that might be the impact of my knee holding the stupid slate frame up.
Based on how this project has been going so far, I'll probably need to stitch, reverse stitch and re-stitch my stitch selections a few times each before I can actually 'finish' that left-side panel.
The ultimate finished project I have envisioned is fabulous. Making that happen for real may be another story.
I could probably buy a pencil case at Staples or a bag at Target that does exactly what I have in mind for this, but how much fun would that be?
You understand, right? . . .
Happy Stitching!
Joan Ford
Head Hummingbird
I really like your 100 Day Stitching Challenge it really turned out beautiful! What kind of stitches are they and how could I learn them? Are they embroidery stitches or specialized cross stitches? Is there a book that I can buy so I can learn them? Please let me know! Thank you very much!
Valerie Thompson
Oh my! Each one came from a different source. Some of them are pretty common and would be found in nearly any stitch dictionary, like the Rhodes stitch, for example. Some are more specific, and are more common for needle point on canvas. As I visit various embroidery shops, I keep my eye out for stitch collection booklets. One of my favorites is the Embroidery Stitch Bible, but there are so many! I could do an entire post on the embroidery books I’ve collected! (Maybe I should!)