And here we are, halfway through the year already.
The month soon fills up.
Today was a simple leaf outline, and you can see it in action on my YouTube channel.
This month has presented difficulties and challenges, most of which are now ongoing. The best policy so far has been to keep calm and stitch.
July ahead:
And the year so far:
Amazing what a few minutes a day can do.
This is just a short update on availability (my own, and my threads). Unfortunately, last week was not the relaxing break I’d been hoping for. There has been a family emergency which will take significant time and effort to resolve.
The shop is now open again for PDFs only, because they are automated and require little input from me, but threads will continue to be unavailable until such time as I am able to be here more reliably for packaging and posting.
When threads do become available again the shop may continue to open and close fairly erratically, depending on where I need to be and what I need to do, and I may not be able to respond to email enquiries as promptly as usual. If you find the shop closed, please just check back in a day or two.
Comments are off on this one, but thank you for your patience and understanding while I navigate the very unpredictable path ahead.
You probably know couching is one of my favourite techniques, and I’m currently conducting an experiment to see how effectively couching might substitute for quilting.
I don’t often get as much time as I’d like for my own work but I’ve been squeezing in an hour here and there on this little quilt that began in June 2024 as a heap of little patches that needed stitching together.
It’s hand-pieced, from lots of vintage and contemporary scraps – past and present sitting side by side, as they do in life – and most of the stitching is either couching or very simple embroidery.
The whole thing measures about a square yard or so.
The red circle is about 10 inches in diameter and began as lines of straight stitch. That didn’t give a prominent enough amount of colour, so I’ve threaded the straight stitches with a fine wool yarn.
The vertical lines are still very much in progress, and there are lots more still to do. I’m couching a fine silk bourette yarn with quilting cotton thread, and that seems to be holding the layers together pretty well. The backing is lightweight calico and the batting is Hobbs wool.
It’s all very much a work in progress. This little quilt has had many false starts and many unpickings in the two years of its construction, but I think it seems happier now and we’ll keep going until we get to wherever it is.
In other news – I’ll be taking some time out next week, so the shop will be closed temporarily for a few days while I attend to other things. Please be patient if you need to get in touch as I may not be checking emails every day.
We’ve already got one foot in June, but here’s how May shaped up:
Thirty-one handfuls of time, caught and stitched down before they could get away.
Some of the May stitching is in my YouTube May playlist, including the little wreath for May Day:
The little tree is also on YouTube and is quite easy to stitch.
The last week in May was too hot. I am a creature of the cold and dark, and I struggle with anything above 22 degrees. Thankfully it’s a little more normal this week and we have some very welcome rain in the forecast.
We like to see the other side, right? Always.
And June is carrying us along:
It’s unstoppable. The best option is to keep going, one day at a time.