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Stitchery in Progress 2025
Monthly Update: End of June 2025 (as usual, click on first image below to see a larger version) Goodness me! We are past the summer solstice already. Such a busy month what with travelling, gardening, going out on the new bike, it's no wonder there wasn't much time for a lot of stitching. I did, however, bring 'Something Fishy' to the top of the list. My friends in the stitch group gently reminded that I had signed up to the next round of travelling books and did I have a new piece for my book and a piece for Alison's book? Oooops no!, but I'll get on with it. The theme for the group this time is based on travels. Thinking cap on... How can I use the bits and pieces from the 'Something Fishy' workshop? Fortunately lots of our travels have included visits to the seaside, visiting aquariums, snorkelling on reefs, so plenty of inspiration for two pieces of work. Travelling to Mexico in winter of 2008/09 was a fabulous experience. Celebrating New Year Mexican style was definitely something not to be forgotten! We were based on the coast at Tulum with its ancient Mayan ruins in walking distance of our hotel, and far enough away from the main tourist centres to enjoy quieter and interesting places. We travelled further afield of course, to include the famous Mayan sites. However, another of the memorable days out was spent snorkelling on the Mesoamerican reef at Akumal Bay. The Caribbean waters were wonderfully warm, crystal clear, and sea life absolutely fascinating, including turtles, baby sharks and many other fishes playing in the myriad of brightly coloured corals. The two pieces below are loosely based on my memories of snorkelling in those waters.
The bits and pieces for these postcards go back to 2024 created during a TAS-2 mini-workshop run by the very talented Lesley Wood - ‘Paint, Print, Stitch’. During the day we painted fabrics for backgrounds and made fish shapes from funky foam for printing. That was as far I got on the day. They have been languishing on the list waiting to be finished since then. Now I’ve managed to create an underwater scene using the bits and pieces. AND I have enough left over to create a larger piece in the future Hurrah!!! does jigs, waves pom poms. I have a fettled finish (indeed, two small fettled finishes). I distressed the painted calico and organza backgrounds to create layers and texture, cut out and appliquéd the printed fish shapes, added silk fibres and threads from an Oliver Twists bag of deliciousness, with further embellishments of shells, beads, sequins and other threads to create interest.
That's it for June's stitching. Something else that has been neglected for a very long time is a long length from Roxy's Journal of Stitchery prompts - The List says I started it in 2022... It was meant to be a concertina book, similar to ones I did with Anne Brooke (shown on the Slow Stitch page), but I lost interest as I didn't like some of the prompts... it is currently in one long piece just over 1m long, and two small pieces cut from the end. It is unusual in that it is yellows and greens, not something I usually choose as backgrounds. It has quite a bit of work on it already. Lots of Suffolk Puffs, some Appliqué patches, with straight stitches, fly stitches, seeding and French knots. I must have started working on the small pieces from it a while ago, so it time to revisit the short pieces and see if I can adapt them for the next pages of the travelling books...
I've made a start on the 10cm square for our stitch group's next Ushaw photo panel. We've made life a bit easier this year, by printing the segment of image directly onto the calico so we all know where the colours and stitching need to be. It also means that it's not so crucial if there are small gaps between stitches. My square has some of the brightly coloured rhododendrons on it so there will be LOTS of French knots. Perhaps I might even be able to do a bit more stitching on the Elizabethan Sweetie Bag in July... Ho Hum, I can dream of being an active stitcher again... But it's time to visit the grandgirlies and celebrate a BIG birthday for The Mummy! let's put things away for a few days and have a different type of fun... ... ooo ... To read previous monthly updates, click below:
Images from all my fettled finishes are in a special gallery, click here to go to the
Links for previous monthly updates for 2024: can be read from here:
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