Chain Stitch.

Chain stitch is one of my favourite stitches. One of the first stitches I learned, and so simple to do. I love to do an outline in quilting or  in chain stitches and embellish with more rows of different colours, or sew on a few beads and or  sequins.

Apart from yoga, reading, meditation and gardening, embroidery is one of the most serene things to do. The more stitches I add the more excited I become to see it grow. It is so absorbing that I lose all sense of time and space. Important though to keep awareness on the  needle as an accidental prick is a nasty jerk out of bliss!

emblem

As I was musing over the colours to use with this fabric, my friend Marti posted this picture of her Cotoneaster bush. A picture taken in her beautiful garden in England. This picture was an instant YES to putting this together the way I did. Thank you Marti for your inspiration unbeknownst to you! The other thing that excited me was the fact that these colours are Dad’s favourite hues!

Cotoneaster

This is the caption Marti wrote below the photograph.

“”Cotoneaster horizontalis” has tiny flowers the bees love, followed by tiny berries that the birds eat. It really does grow horizontal, in a herringbone pattern. Ours was in the old Stanley garden when we moved here, so I guess had been a favourite of the previous occupant for years before. Little seedlings pop up too. The leaves are as tiny as the berries, no more that 10mm.”

(rather synchronistic she described the plant growing in a “herringbone” pattern…..another embroidery stitch)

Full strip

Embroidery is the art of enriching a fabric with stitchery.

This piece of fabric was given to me by Annegret. It is an overprint/misprint – a reject. (Printed on the fabric as they were cleaning the rollers) The feint pattern suggested the shapes to me while embroidering. You can just make out the smudges of gold print on the fabric.

I used thin batting sandwiched between muslin and the fabric worked on. I love the spongy feel to it and it makes puffy raised pieces in between the stitches.

“For myself, I find I’m never happier than with some kind of needle in hand, designing or completing some kind of needlework; when not doing it, it calls to me like a siren.” AJ Barnett, Needlearts Design

Back view purse.

I made it up into a simple press studded purse…bound with bias binding.

Closed front view.

These “weeds” grow in our back lawn. The flowers are pretty in the spring.

Perfect to carry a cellphone.

This little purse is the perfect fit for my cellphone. This wasn’t planned….just a perfect coincidence! A nice snug protective fit.

Row of daisies.

A row of daisies on another section of the fabric that the misprint suggested.

“Embroidery has a natural affinity for flowers.  It can also, of course, represent nothing at all.”  –Chris Rankin, Splendid Silk Ribbon Embroidery, 1996

Single daisy.

More daisies.

Work in progress. Tacking still in place.

Purse made up.

Another little bag.

All this stitching I did quite a while back.

This post is to inspire myself and anyone who reads this to do more hand stitching. To make time to find the pleasure of hand work.

“It is not that artistic power has left the world but that a more rapid life has developed itself in it, leaving no time for deliberate dainty decoration or labours of love.” Mrs. Orrinsmith 1877.

……and that was a quote from 1877!!!!

Sewing was a part of the curriculum at school for me. Nowadays there is no such thing. I was so fortunate to belong to a family that loved sewing. Many an hour was spent in  companionship while stitching.

“So, we should encourage our children to sew, not as the mind-numbing experience it was for many of us, but to lean the satisfaction of creating and experimenting, with definitely no mention of the word ‘perfectionist’ (because therein lies madness).”  –Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

Here is a link to very clear “how to” on chain stitch.

http://www.purlbee.com/embroidery-tutorial/2007/2/12/chain-stitch.html

This is my first post in the embroidery category. I look forward to posting many more!