Over the last few months my Embroiderer’s Guild has been creating Travelling Sketchbooks. We’re all in groups of six and each month we have someone else’s book to make an entry for. This is the final book before we get our own books back on Monday and we get to see what every one else has been stitching in our own book.

This month I had Jeans book with the theme of tiles, so there’s entries about Moroccan tiles, floor tiles, all sorts…I decided on Scrabble tiles! I was pretty relieved when I was chatting to her and she admitted she was thinking of doing a tongue in cheek one for this month, she’ll hopefully appreciate this one!

I came up with three words which were suitable, not too long and would connect together, Scrabble style! Stitch, Tile and Jean. Now I know in real life Scrabble you’re not allowed names, but call it artistic license! I used my die cutter to cut perfect one inch squares from some lovely wool felt I bought in Skipton.

I drew the letters first with my silver gel pen. This is my marker of choice now as it leaves a fine twinkly line, it can be washed out, and it’s acid free, so it’s not going to damage the fabric over time. If my line or the stitching is slightly off a fine twinkly line isn’t as obvious as a pencil line. I just used back stitch in a dark grey thread,(DMC3799)  three strands for the letters and one strand for the numbers.

I felt the edges needed finishing, even though the felt wouldn’t fray, it just looked unfinished, so I used DMC 4010 which is one of their lovely variegated threads in very pale blue, grey, lilac and white and blanket-stitched round the edges. It was just the right colour. I added a little pink flower to her initial letter too.

I was really pleased with the tiles, but when I put them on the white paper they looked a bit lost. I checked on the internet what colour the Scrabble board is and found a similar quilting fabric in my stash. I interfaced the back and then drew a grid of one inch squares with my silver gel pen. I used the machine to stitch the lines and to zig-zag round the edge. It would have been nice to hand-stitch it all but I knew I didn’t have time, so machine it is!

I tried the tiles on it, it looked much better but still not quite finished. It really needed the coloured squares for the double and triple word scores. I very briefly considered squares of fabric, very briefly! I then remembered my watercolour paints which we used to paint silk backgrounds on my silk ribbon embroidery course. One advantage I remembered was that if you didn’t like it you could dab it off whilst it was still wet…

…it doesn’t work on cotton!! Luckily I had decided to try it on one of the squares that would be covered by a tile. My first attempt was too dark and not very even. I persevered with the other colours, testing the paint first on some kitchen roll. I wasn’t sure at first, but once I put the tiles on it looked alright, it’s just enough colour to add a bit of interest to the background.

I glued the tiles on with fabric glue so they kept that look of just sitting on a board (that’s my excuse!) and glued the whole piece into her book.

All I’ve got to do now is a short resume of how and why I stitched it. I’m pleased with my final entry and quite excited about getting my book back. I shall show you it next week. We’ve been asked to photograph the books so they can go on SEG blog, I’ll let you know when they start to appear so you can see what everyone else has been stitching.

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts on Sunday for Slow-Stitching Sunday, why not follow the link and see what every one else is stitching this week.