November Stitching

 It's past time for me to get you caught up on the stitching I've done for k3n's stitch journal project! 

To begin with, in the final week of October I couldn't bring myself to do the prompt as Kathryn presented it. She suggested we blindfold ourselves - properly prepared with threaded needle(s) and scissors at hand - and try stitching without being able to see what we were doing. Something deep inside rebelled at the very idea. So I stitched this instead:

The following week Kathryn introduced us to various embroidery stitches often found on kantha, the quilts made by women in India. 

And the week after that she gave us an opportunity to use those stitches (or as many/as few as we chose) the way they are used on kantha, to create a tree of life design or fill in animal or other shapes. 

The last week of November we were inspired by another embroiderer, Sue Benneton. She does something she calls wrinkle stitching. Crumple up a piece of fabric and then stitch on the creases. The next step is to fill in the negative spaces between the stitched lines. In the beginning it looks a bit like a map. However, I found that once I started filling in I couldn't stop!

 KoolKookyKreatures' postcard prompt for November was monochrome (working only in shades and tints of one color). I chose to work in a hue I don't naturally gravitate to:

Now it's time for December's postcard. The prompt is fairly straightforward: happy holidays. Hopefully I'll be back before next year to show you how I've responded to that one. 😊

Scrap Happy in August

 I've been playing with my tiniest scraps lately. When I'm processing scrap fabrics anything that's less than an inch and a half wide goes into one of three lunch size paper bags: one bag for warm colors, one for the cool hues, and the third gets all the neutrals (black, white, gray, ecru to brown). I've discovered I really enjoy stitching these pieces down in fabric collages. One format to use is a strip or scroll rather than a square or rectangle. The base I used for this scroll was a strip of muslin only 2.5" tall. I've wound the completed scroll on a wooden clothes peg.

Unrolled, the scroll measures about 24" long. 

This is the back of the work.

I used a variety of threads, stitches, and embellishments. Most of the threads are Sulky 12 weight cotton or size 12 perle cotton. There's regular embroidery floss too.

I don't have a plan when I make things like this; I just stitch according to what I feel like doing in the moment.

This end is actually where the scroll began. You may not be able to see, but that gap in the stitching in the first section is where the white-on-white fabric is printed with the word CRAFTS.

Now my little scroll is all tied up and living in a pretty glass dish I picked up somewhere along the way. 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden. I invite you to visit the regular participants who are listed below. And if you'd like to share what you've done with scrap materials or how you've repurposed items you can leave a comment with either Kate or Gun to be included the next time around. 😊

Kate, Gun, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Alissa,
Lynn, Tierney, Hannah, Maggie

Scrap Happy in July

 I'm going to take this opportunity to share the stitchery squares I made for the third round of the Great Big Little Stitchery Swap. This swap was instigated by Annie Claxton on her YouTube channel last year. It's been fun to make 4" stitched squares and trade them with ladies around the world. Most of my squares stayed in the United States this time around. Only one went overseas, to New Zealand. All were made with some of my smallest scraps, various embroidery threads and embellishments.

 

I purposely kept them as flat and lightweight as possible so they could travel in a card at regular first class postage rates. The next round of swaps is scheduled to begin in October of this year. I'll have to do a follow-up post to show you the squares I received from my partners! 

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden. Everyone in the list below may not have something to share every month but there's bound to be inspiration to be had in all of them. 😊

Kate, Gun, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa,
Lynn, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

June Wrap Up

It's not quite the end of June as I write this but I have finished a few things and want to share before I forget. 

I'm very pleased with the postcard I made in response to the #kookypostcardsal2024 hosted by Tori Chatfield at KoolKookyKreatures on YouTube. The prompt was Yellow Brick Road. I confess that I struggled with this prompt, obvious though it was. Finally, as I was waiting for sleep to come a few nights ago it occurred to me to piece 1.5" bricks of yellow to create the road. That didn't seem like enough however. Eventually I hit upon the idea to put Toto, Dorothy's dog, on the yellow brick road. My attempts to create a template for Toto failed miserably - no surprise there as I never have been able to draw a recognizable shape without the benefit of graph paper. Hubby located an image from the original illustrations in the book and print it out for me in several sizes. This is the end result:

I added the sequins for a bit of the magic of Oz. 

The first week in the stitch journal project was an opportunity to play with blanket stitch. This was more challenging than I expected. I've become comfortable with doing the blanket stitch over straight lines and edges. This approach was more like working backwards to my mind. It certainly gives a cool result though.

The instigator of this stitch journal project, Kathryn at k3n.clothtales, celebrated her birthday early in June. My birthday happens to fall in the middle of June. To celebrate still being crazy after all these years Kathryn had us crazy piece a block one week and then embellish it the next week. I've dabbled with crazy quilting in the past but for some reason this block did not come easily for me. 

It was time to dig up the fabric booklets/bundles we'd buried at the spring equinox during the week of the summer solstice (here in the Northern Hemisphere). I'd put this scrap of crochet on the cover of my booklet...

And stitched this phrase inside.

I wrapped this up with bits of a pinecone, onion skin, and a sprig off our arbor vitae and then bound it with twine. The bundle went into the ground under the arbor vitae. This is what I was left with after carefully unwrapping the bundle and rinsing it well.

The crochet seemed to have disappeared entirely. The onion skin and the pinecone have left color behind. The twine was very fragile and in pieces. My stitching, done with plant dyed threads, is mostly intact but very faded.

To add this to my journal I carefully stitched it to a scrap of vintage hankie. Kathryn encouraged us to just respond to our cloth with stitches in whatever way felt right. Mostly I just tacked down raw edges. In a couple of places I stitched over tears with herringbone stitches or cross stitches. There's one small patch of needle weaving. I couched bits of the twine in place as well. This was a pretty cool experiment. 

Finally, in this last week of June Kathryn gave us the opportunity to make a single large hexagon (relatively speaking) for a quilt as you go project. The idea was to bind the edges of the hexie by folding over the backing piece of fabric. Then you have a smooth back with no stitches evident and you can whip stitch the hexies together to create whatever you choose. She was also inspired by Jeri Bellini who is doing a dot a day with stitch. I knew that binding would be too fiddly for me so I have blanket stitched the perimeter of my hexagon. 

While I admire the look of hexagons and what can be done with them I do not enjoy the process involved in making and using them. 

I have also assembled the huswif/treasure book I've been working on for a couple of months. I will do a separate post about that so stay tuned!

Stitch Journal Entries for May

 The first week of May Kathryn introduced us to a new book called The Pocket, A Hidden History of Women's Lives by Barbara Burman and Arianne Fennetaux. Women's dresses didn't have pockets in previous centuries - and don't often have them even now. To remedy that they made pockets that could be tied on, most often under their skirts. There were slits in the skirts that allowed access to the pocket but were hidden in the folds of the fabric.  Kathryn's reading inspired her to prompt us to make pockets of our own. A few ladies have made full size versions but most of us made little ones to fit into our journals.

There was some concern that women could spread revolutionary pamphlets without detection by secreting them in their pockets.

The following week Kathryn took inspiration from the Japanese practice of kintsugi. Cracks in pottery are repaired with lacquer dusted with gold or silver or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

On week three Kathryn gave us the opportunity to take a ride on her magic carpet to whatever secluded place would best rest our souls. Food and other comforts would be provided magically but we could only take 8 items with which to stitch and they had to fit into a theoretical pouch no bigger than about 6" x 6."

This was particularly fun for me. I even had fabric scraps  (and thread) leftover at the end of my stay.

The next week was meant to be a boro inspired entry in our journals, another Japanese technique. I couldn't bring myself to do the challenge as presented. Mine turned out to be a way to preserve some precious scraps of feed sack fabrics.

This week I felt a bit more brave and created another piece, much more in line with Kathryn's goals for week 21 of the stitch journal project. The idea was to sew small scraps together to create a new piece of cloth. This technique is used to preserve jackets and other textiles to give them longer usefulness.

Both sides of the worked piece can be presentable. I don't consider this work finished; there's room for more stitching.

 

And finally, for the last week of May we were to make "comfort cloth" inspired by the blankies little children often carry around. Kathryn was able to use a piece of one of her father's handkerchiefs and a bit from a pair of his pajamas over a piece of wool suiting. I used flannel and a piece of one of the hankies leftover from the bag I made last month. I did a bit of needle weaving and then freestyle blanket stitches. Blanket stitches for a replica of a blanket, get it? 

There have been other slow stitch projects that I've just realized I haven't yet shared here. I must do something about that...

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!

February Stitching

 I'm keeping up with k3n's weekly stitch journal very well so far. I've tried to do this sort of thing in the past but without this level of success. Let's hope I can keep it up for the rest of the year! 

You saw the first prompt for February in my last stitchery post. The second week included Valentine's Day so of course we made hearts. Kathryn included a photo compilation of her two grandmothers and mounted that underneath her heart. She was able to use scraps of fabric she'd kept from a grandmother too. Her tag line was "held together by scraps of love." I didn't have those kind of resources so I simply used shades of red and pinky-purple scraps to make a foundation for my heart. Kathryn enjoys kantha stitching, I prefer a bit of embroidery. So, this is how my heart turned out:

An Angela (I didn't get a last name) left a comment on the video for this prompt in which she said, "buttons are like love, they hold things together." That really spoke to me so I made sure to include some tiny heart buttons in my piece. The pink stripe I used behind my heart is a scrap of a maternity dress I wore when carrying our three children. 

The following week was an opportunity to learn how to make pojagi, pieced cloth that Koreans use to wrap gifts and other things. This was a bit intimidating at the outset, especially when Kathryn recommended we use thin fabrics that look good on both sides. She has a lot of vintage sheet fabric that she has eco dyed. The only cloth I could think of in my stash that would look good on both sides were batiks. They are pretty dense though, and would be harder to get a needle through. In the end I used white and unbleached muslin scraps for my sample.

I forgot to photograph it before I stitched it into my my journal, otherwise I would show you that both sides are presentable. The only raw edges are around the perimeter. I quite enjoyed making this piece but my hands were complaining by the time I finished. I found myself gripping the fabric tightly as I stitched. 

In honor of the ninth week of the project - the last week of February - Kathryn had us make 9 patch blocks. Not pieced, appliqued. She gave us the option of turning the edges of our squares under or leaving them raw. She cut her squares freehand. Some of them were more rectangular than square. I didn't mind that a bit and would have left some of mine less than square too. However, I used felted wool instead of cotton cloth and had a template of sorts to use to cut the wool. (K3n padded a few of her squares with a bit of batting. I figured the wool would give a similar effect with less stress on my part.)

I got a sort of wonky effect just in the process of stitching the squares to the foundation fabric. A couple of the squares got trimmed a bit too. I have to say, this was pure joy for me to stitch. I haven't worked with wool very much up to now. Might have to figure out ways to incorporate it more often! I also enjoy seed stitching, which gives so much texture to the background. 

I turned my piece over before I started the seed stitching and discovered I quite liked the look of the back at that point:

Just that sample of colors makes me happy. 😊 

For the record, I'm stitching these pieces onto the pages of a commercially available sketch book. The book measures 8" x 6," and I'm working on roughly 4.5' foundation squares. It's already obvious that the coil spine of the sketch book won't accommodate 52 pages of stitcheries. Eventually I will have to remove the wire binding and then sew the pages back together at the end of the year. Unless I find a decorative tin the right size... Kathryn is an old hand at making fat stitch journals. I'm not sure I'm ready for that particular challenge yet.

Scrap Happy in December

 When I'm cutting scraps into patches for future use there are inevitably tiny scraps that are too small for the piecing I do but are too big to be thrown away as far as I'm concerned. So they get tossed into one of three lunch-size paper bags.

Warm colors in one bag, neutrals in another, and cool colors in the third. 

Slow stitching has finally justified hanging onto these little bits. For the past couple of weeks I've been digging into these bags to create the foundations for some embellished hearts.

 Each of these hearts are about 4" high and 3.5" wide. I use an eight inch length of ribbon for the hanging loops. The scrap fabrics are sewn to a scrap piece of batting and another scrap of batting goes between the stitched front and the felt I use for the back of the hearts.

 

The laces, appliques, and buttons are all salvaged from one source or another. I'm using only ribbons from my stash and the embroidery threads I have on hand.

The only elements that are new would be the occasional charm. However, they were not purchased specifically for this project.

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate in Australia and Gun in Sweden. We post things we've been able to make out of scrap or recycled materials on the 15th of each month in our respective time zones. Current participants span the globe. If you'd like to join in next year just leave a comment with Kate or Gun. In the meantime, have a safe and happy holiday season!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah