Second Week of January '24

 So far, so good! I've managed to stay on schedule with the weekly prompts I've undertaken for the year. One may not be weekly, but has been so far. 

The second week of Kathryn's Weekly Slowstitch 2024 was a depiction of balance between light and dark.  A strip of a light fabric and one of dark overlaid with a circle cut from a third fabric. Then seed stitching and some couching. I didn't follow Kathryn's lead exactly. She used some twined cloth to create a light and dark frame around her circle. I chose to couch a black yarn with white embroidery floss.

Kathryn also did a double running stitch with a black thread and then a white one around the perimeter of her square. I don't especially enjoy running stitch so I simply blanket stitched the perimeter to hold the layers together more securely.

The other current weekly project is Annie Claxton's Color Inspiration project. I thought I would be making a case for my Iphone for the first prompt. Unfortunately, I miscalculated the dimensions. The phone wouldn't fit in what I ended up with. Now I'm planning to use the piece I made as a cover for a fabric book. I'm hoping I can respond to future prompts on fabric and have them become the pages in the book. 

The first prompt was to explore one color in any or all media of your choice. I chose yellow.

First I laid down various yellow prints and stitched over them with assorted shades of yellow threads. I was a little surprised that I gravitated to orange-yellows more than the lighter lemon yellow. On such a small project there wasn't room to include the full range of yellow I have in my stash. (I began with a strip of batting 4" x 14." You're only seeing half of that strip in the photo above.)

This project gave me an opportunity to use some items I've had in The Nest for some time. Things I didn't have a clue how or when I would use them but couldn't bear to part with. Like the plastic feather you see on what has become the cover for this eventual book. 😊

The label is from a man's silk tie I took apart years ago. I used running stitches, back stitch, and cross stitch on this side. Oh yes, there are two lines of herringbone on either side of the beaded trim too. 

More running stitches and cross stitches on the back along with some fly stitches around the pink polka dots. Managed to include some beads on this side too. 😁 

The next step for the Color Inspiration project is to create with a complimentary color scheme, include black and white and one shape. This should be interesting!