Stitching

Yeesh, once again, I have hardly any photos to show you. I am so busy yet obviously, not doing anything that is photographicable. That's a new word, you can use it.

I washed all the hankies I plan to use for this little project. I've used Oxi-clean with decent success. One of the hankies has a red/pink stain over most of it. I think it was stored beside a pink hankie and it absorb the dye. I might replace it.

I've also chosen the colours for the next little sketch. The two greens and yellow are the same as in the daisy. I've added the dusty rose and gold for a bit of spark and,

the blue and green from the previous hanky sketch. I plan to use those two colours in some way in each hanky for a bit of continuity. I did do some stitching on this but forgot to photo it. My brain is not connected to the camera as much as it used to be. (selfie-ear flick)

I did teach an embroidery workshop last Friday. It wasn't a disaster, in fact, I think it worked. Before it began, I couldn't figure out how to make it work. The student has this eensy weensy needle in his or her hand, a thin strand of thread and about 2 square inches they are stitching into. How to express where the needle is meant to travel. Up at A, down at B, go over to C....

I used my body. I stood at the front of the class and pretended my right arm was the needle and passed it over and under my torso and between my legs and if they didn't get the path the needle was meant to go, they at least had a laugh.

Luckily the group had good visual learning skills and the photocopies of each stitch we were learning were decent. I completely recommend the Batsford Encyclopaedia of Embroidery Stitches, written by Anne Butler. The images of each sewn stitch is large and the line drawings showing where the needle goes in an out are equally large. It is all black and white and very legible. There are plenty of other really good stitch encyclopedias out there that are more modern that I also like, but this one is top drawer. I bought my copy through Abe Books (Canada). It came from a UK vendor. The shipping costs were sane. The time it took to get here was longer than compared to a US purchase, but the service etc. is better in general from the UK.

Here are two links that you might like to visit, both excellent stitch resources. I use Mary Corbett's all the time, while my very talented friend uses
(here) Sara's hand embroidery tutorials
(here) NeedlenThread

Well, that's all she wrote. Note to self....take more pictures. I suspect you don't want pictures of me vacuuming or bringing in the wood.... so, what to take, what to take.  Oops, speaking of taking, I will be away in Toronto next Monday. It is too difficult to sort out on line access, I will be back in two weeks.