Friday, March 29, 2013

Practising my embroidery stitches ...

Learning some new stuff too....

About me actually......... hahahhahh... almost as much as I am learning about embroidery and embellishment.

For instance ... I'm totally anal.

This block...our first.... took me about 3 hours and 7 minutes of agonizing over before I got it pieced together... and was happy with the look of it.















Dare I tell you how long it only takes for Karen to put together an amazing looking block?  7 minutes!  Flat!  .... PLEASE go to see her beautiful work... it's worth it just to gawk at some of her postings.  The photos are enough to blow you away....

I'm consoling myself with a few things..... first, she has a lot more 'stuff' to choose from than I do at the moment ..... and......she has been doing it for several years now..... plus....as she says herself...it is not a race.  It is to make a lovely cloth for ourselves, that honours the traditions of women through the ages that have made, or pieced, or stitched, on any fabric or scrap of fabric they managed to find, buy or somehow secure ....

I'm going to start begging for scraps and, (all of a sudden, while typing),  I just remembered a lady up the block makes quilts........so, now,  I do know three people who sew ...maybe they have some useable pieces hanging around....and my sister says she has found a pretty doily with some cutwork ...  so maybe I will find or make a pretty box or container for all my lovely white stuff which I hope to eventually accumulate.  I've always loved white on white...just never got around to doing anything like this... but, now.......it will probably become an obsession.....

The first stitches I wanted to do were some my Mom taught me ... she used to do bits here and there .... little cloths and some pillow cases and one table cloth are all I really remember her doing... but, she did know how to embroider and so daintily. She always worked so tiny and I find I do the same with a lot of things... how we become our parents in so many ways.... without even realizing it.

The first embroidery stitches I ever learned.... Chain Stitch and French Knot.......how did I do Mom? Personally I realize quite a bit of practice is needed...it's been awhile since I embroidered..... but, I know she would have said how wonderful they are .... she was always our biggest cheerleader in all our endeavours.

My cloth is underway.


6 comments:

Annie said...

Oh wow....it's looking good so far :-)
Hugs,
A x

Draffin Bears said...

Hi Vee,

Clever! your cloth is looking good and what fun to do some embroidery stitching again.
Happy Easter
hugs
Carolyn

Lynn Holland said...

Well done Vee on your great start.
I'm finding it very difficult especially after seeing Tracy's blocks in the flesh.
OMG 7 minutes to put a block together.... Try 7 hours and I'm still not happy. Gulp, think I'm going to have to get my act together. Yesterday I pulled back and cut out stitches 3 times as it didn't look right. It's hard work this stitching malarkey
Lynn x

Twiglet said...

Well isn't that just lovely - keep at it Vee! x Jo

Serena Lewis said...

It looks just beautiful, Vee! I've always adored the look of white-on-white too. I remember learning some embroidery stitches many years ago in high school and I enjoyed it immensely. Never took it further than that though and I have long forgotten the techniques, I'm sure.

P.S. - I'm trying to catch up with blogs after some time away from blogging. Happy Easter! xo

Shashi Nayagam said...

Looking beautiful. You have the eye for it