April Entries in My Stitch Journal

We began April in the weekly stitch journal project with Kathryn of k3n.clothtales using multiple layers of cloth to honor the moon. Kathryn cut a primitive wolf shape to use as a silhouette for the final layer on her moon. I couldn't resist using a large-ish charm I had on hand. 😉

The following week was the week of the solar eclipse. Even though k3n is in France and the eclipse occurred over the United States she suggested this representation of the event.

 I understand that some folks who were in the path of the eclipse but not in the zone of totality created a representation of their partial eclipse. This piece was also an opportunity to practice stacked running stitches and split stitch. 

Having done the stars (last month), the moon, and the sun Kathryn figured it was time to honor the planet on which we live. This prompt occurred just prior to Earth Day too, making it that much more appropriate.

The brown and green strips represent the roughly 30% of the globe that has land mass and the blue strips convey the 70% covered by oceans. I added a bit of crinkled seam binding for the foam of the waves on the beach and rick rack to help indicate the movement of the waves through the water. 

Kathryn threw us a plot twist for the last week of April. We were to pick a printed fabric that we could embellish or enhance with thread and stitches...

And then mount it in our journals with the back of the work showing instead of the front. 😁

One of her goals is to help us break free from the idea that the back of our work needs to be as neat as the front, thus causing extra stress and less enjoyment of the process.

Kathryn and others made journals in which to mount their work each week. I was reluctant to make something that might end up being too small before the end of the year so I purchased an 8" x 6" sketchbook similar to this one:

 

We're only a third of the way through the year and I had to remove the coil binding. I chose to replace it with 3" binder rings. 

I figure they should give me enough room for the rest of the year. I can do something prettier in the end if I feel the need. The rings make it a bit awkward to lay flat on a desk top at the moment but I can remove one page to stitch my piece onto if I want and then put it back in the book. I may very well end up using a box to store this in rather than trying to put it on a shelf like a regular book!