Another month.
Days crammed and jostling cheek by jowl, gone almost before they started.
In the chaos of our kitchen refurbishment, a little quiet stitching turned out to be a happy oasis of calm each day.
As always, I’ve used mostly my own hand-dyed threads. If you want something similar, threads are available here until 6th December. The shop will re-open in January. I really like the random colour changes and subtle variations you get with hand-dyes. It makes any kind of stitching look more impressive than it really is.
The orange/red/green scroll stitch section below is in a Stef Francis variegated silk thread and is one of my favourite threads.
The other side is almost as chaotic as our kitchen.
I can see all the Embroiderers Guild members throwing up their hands in horror. There are knots! There are thread floats! It’s such a mess! Well, some of us are a mess underneath our calm exterior, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I have no qualms at all about the back of the work, and I don’t try to make the back tidy. I let it be what it is, and I love its honesty. There is nothing hidden, nothing covered up, and nothing to be afraid of. You can see it for what it is.
The kitchen still isn’t finished, but there’s just the painting and the flooring to do, and hooray for that.
There’s a December-shaped gap on the stitch journal, ready for a few more tomorrows.
If you’ve been thinking about starting something similar next year and want some tips on getting started, there is currently 25% off my online courses here. Use code BF2024 at the checkout; offer ends 5th December, so be quick. Courses are all prerecorded so you can start whenever you like and access the material as long as you want.
And here’s a little preview of next year’s templates, available from early December:
Looking forward to next year already.
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The backs of my work are always messy and always will be, I think. I definitely don’t worry about it.
We have no official Embroiders’ Guild in the US to my knowledge and no one to embroider for. I think of it as an art passed down generationally, although I learned initially from a friend when I was about 13, in her tiny bedroom shared by 2 of her sisters. She was patient and I learned. (My own family hadn’t done stitching for years.)
As always, I love your daily stitching. It’s so lovely.
And congrats on the kitchen getting close.
Thanks so much Em. Who sees the back anyway is my usual standpoint. Thank goodness for patient teachers 🙂
I love the analogy of a calm exterior and underneath there may be a mess. I have just found your art and am fascinated by the daily stitching! I’m signed up for your daily stitching class. I’m a nature journaler sketching with watercolor, so the slow stitching feels a bit like painting with colored thread! I’m hooked already after trying a sample this weekend!
thanks so much, and welcome to my quiet corner 🙂 I’m so glad you’re enjoying colouring with thread (and you’re absolutely right, of course, that’s what it is). So many creative pursuits have these lovely overlaps and crossover points. Hope you enjoy the course and have many hours of happy stitching
Yes, that’s me: full of knots and thread floats! 🙂 Your stitching, as always, is a joy to behold.
ha, same 🙂 Thanks so much Stephanie
My tidiness depends very much on end use. I try not to knot or tangle if it will be worn, or if said knots and tangles risk showing through. Other than that, …!
yes, that’s a fair point actually – same here, if I think about it. And I do bury quilting knots in the batting.