Friday 6 July 2007

Rain Again To Day - so more stitching

Close up of French Knots and Straight Stitch



Rain again today for the most part - so concentrated on more hand stitching, which I really love.
I enjoy the rhythm. Hand stitching also gives me a feeling of being connected to all the women down the ages who have stitched.

I love this bit!



Doing as much hand stitching as I am on a piece this size is not at all cost effective - the stitches and threads I use are so small and fine that they take an age to do so if the piece ever sells - I will probably get twopence an hour for my time! But I still adore hand stitching.



Tip for the day is to use a fine a needle as you can when stitching on tissue paper - or any paper - as the needle leaves small holes in the paper unlike fabric where it has more chance of pushing the fibres aside. My other tip for hand stitching;- if you are using an circular embroidery hoop - is to have the hoop "Upside-down" ie put the big section - the outside rim on the table - place your fabric on top and then push in the inner ring - this means that the little screw for tightening the hoop is underneath - and you do not get your thread caught up in it



No studio time tomorrow - we have visitors for the weekend - so must dash around the house with mop and bucket - I guess you all know how it is when you are in the middle of a piece of work!

2 comments:

Clara said...

Karen, I've been following your development of this piece. You do beautiful work. I am an absolute beginner to fabric and sewing, but am interested in combining it with paper to incorporate into my bookmaking. I have a lot to learn, and it's a treat to find inspiration from blogs such as yours.

Good luck with your submission.

Clara

Unknown said...

This looks beautiful Karen, I look forward to seeing the end result,
Thanks for the comment on my blog, you have no e-mail link, so thought I would thank you here:)