Skip to main content

Slow stitch Sunday

 

The pink poppies are in full swing on the allotment.  Masses of them.  
I'm not the biggest fan of this particular variety as they're a bit too 'pink frilly knickers', but I love them when they're in bud and just about to bloom, also when the seed-heads appear.  I always collect way too much seed for my own needs, so scatter handfuls on grass verges, hoping they'll pop up at roadsides in years to come.  

Once home, I had the urge to do some simple stitching.  Ages ago I cut out and kept a picture of these little fabric pieces by Janet Bolton.  

I intended to make something similar.  Plain fabric background, simplified image of a dragonfly.  Initially I gathered together orange material, along with neutral pale browns and cream.  But I didn't have quite the right brown for the colour scheme I wanted.  Anyway, I always tend to drift toward pink.  So instead I picked out a scrap of pink with gold hearts, as well as a linen look plain pink that I particularly like.  
Using a straightforward running stitch I sewed horizontal and vertical lines, then added a simple binding.  
I'm dithering now over whether to add a dragonfly or not.  I quite like the idea of something delicate, the wings going over the edges of the binding.  I'll put this mini project aside for now and have a think about it.  
I'm typing this blog post to the sound of rainfall.  Finally we've got showers, and probably later there'll be thunder and lightning, a good storm to clear the air.  I'll read another chapter of my book before I turn in tonight.  Kate Mosse 'The City of Tears'.  It's a doorstep of a book, but very readable, an old-fashioned page turner and all the better for it. 

Hope you enjoy what's left of the weekend.  Bye! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

  I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day.  It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice.  Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle.  Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it?  I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning.  I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point.  Time will tell.   This is a link to the listing, if you're interested.  This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs.  It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday.  I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax.  The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

In praise of wool

Just a quick post today. I'm offering you a short but peaceful break from the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of Christmas.  By now you've probably eaten your bodyweight in sweets//roast potatoes/pigs in blankets/cake/After Eights ... whatever your festive indulgences are.  You're under-exericsed, over-stimulated, feeling broke and possibly guilty about an argument with a relative or friend you've never entirely got on with.  So, here's something to take your mind off all that.   I've two videos to refresh and revive, and they both concern wool.   Interesting fact.  Well, I found it interesting.  About 1% - yup, one per cent - of the world's textiles are made of wool.  Out of curiosity, I also googled how much is made of cotton.  That's higher, but it's only about 24% and that's heading downward instead of up.  Synthetic fibres are the bulk of all textile manufacture.  Anyway, back to woolly wonders.   My firs...

Abstractuary ... no, I hadn't heard of it either

  Goodbye January, the month that feels like it's stretched out to be extra-long, the month we have to plough through to get to February and real signs of Spring.  You may know, if you've wandered by this blog before, that I'm beavering away at Ann Wood's 100 day stitchbook challenge.   That's still going strong.  Three pages done and I've started page four.  But I've also stumbled across another monthly challenge, and this one originated with Tori Chatfield, a.k.a. Kool Kooky Kreatures.  You can find her on YouTube and Facebook, and she runs something called Abstractuary.  Tori's produced a list of prompts for each day in February, and the idea is that you produce something arty or crafty based on those prompts.  You can stitch or paint or collage or use whatever kind of materials you want. I won't commit to following these prompts every single day of Feb, but I'm certainly going to use several of them.  Tori's also produced a Pinterest...