Tall Year Square Etui SAL 1

Posted on January 21, 2018 by craftycreeky

Last year I happened to see a photograph of a beautiful embroidered etui box, I traced it back to a Classic Inspirations magasine so I ordered it immediately. My mum used to get Classic Inspirations years ago, they are an Australian embroidery magasine and they really are in a class of their own, I highly recommend them as they really do inspire!! When it arrived there were three projects I particularly liked, so I have the next three projects lined up for the stitch-a-long! Tall Year Square Classic Inspirations

The Tall Year Square etui is designed by Betsy Morgan of the USA. Each side reflects a different season with different colour fabrics and threads, the designs have seasonal motifs but also have border patterns running around the box. I ordered the different shades of Permin 32 count linen, I didn’t realise there were so many gorgeous shades of linen!!

The threads were more of an issue as Betsy uses Gloriana stranded silk. I’m sure these are absolutely beautiful and wonderful to use, but they are £5.76 each here in the UK and she uses over thirty colours!!! I decided to stick with DMC at £1 each instead, especially as I already have a large collection.I prevaricated for a while as I was trying to find DMC threads of the same variegated colour range, this clearly wasn’t going to be possible.

I decided to choose my own seasonal colours, I started with spring and thought about what colours I think of when I think of spring. For me it’s fresh green leaves, yellow daffodils, bluebells and a touch of pink cherry blossom. I looked through my DMC variegated threads and chose five as a starting point.Choosing embroidery threads

I’ve started at the bottom with a little flower border in cross-stitch.It took me a while to get my head round stitching individual cross-stitches each time rather than rows as that way the variegation is clearest. The narrow green row is a long legged cross-stitch stitched with a single strand of thread, that’s repeated several times up the side. The satin stitch triangles are stitched with two strands to give enough cover.

Second or third attempt at colours!!

The charts provided have taken a bit of getting used to as they show every thread, rather than a box per cross-stitch as I’m used to. I’ve just finished the wavy border, it took several attempts and lots of unpicking before I was happy with the colours. My first thought was to use plain thread  rather than variegated as I didn’t want to end up with too much variegation overall. The DMC website suggests that the Colaris range use four actual thread colours in each variegation. I was hoping they would specify which ones so I could use them for the waves. I couldn’t find any information on this so I tried matching from my collection, but half way into the second wave I just wasn’t happy and unpicked it all.

In the end  after several attempts I just used a different variegated thread for each one, two of them I’d used in the lower borders, and I’m sure I’ll repeat the others too so hopefully it will give it a bit of continuity.

I’m pleased with my first efforts, though at the moment it takes longer to choose the colour than it does to actually stitch the border! Hopefully once spring is completed and I have a bit more of an idea on how the colours work the decisions on the other three seasons won’t take as long. It’s actually pretty small, less than three inches across and about 7″ tall.Tall Year Square Classic Inspirations

The stitch-a-long is organised by Avis of Stitching by the Sea, there quite a few of us now all stitching our own choice of projects. Why not have a look what everyone else is stitching, just follow the links to see some stunning projects;

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie

Everyone is in different time scales, so if there isn’t a post when you first look, check later in the day. If you fancy joining us for the SAL, just send a message to Avis.

About craftycreeky

I live in a busy market town in Yorkshire with my husband, kids, dogs and chickens. I love trying new crafts, rediscovering old ones, gardening, walking...anything creative really I started this blog after my New Year resolution worked so well. My resolution (the first one I've ever kept!) was to post a photograph of my garden on Facebook every day. My hope was that I would then see what was good in the garden and not just weeds and work, which was my tendency. The unexpected side-effect was that I have enjoyed many more hours in the garden. I am hoping that 'The Crafty Creek' will have the same effect. Happy creating!
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52 Responses to Tall Year Square Etui SAL 1

  1. ccflo3 says:
    January 21, 2018 at 6:40 am

    I love your color choices. This is going to be beautiful.

    Like

    Reply
  2. katechiconi says:
    January 21, 2018 at 7:21 am

    Such a pretty project! There’s no way I’d have the patience to select, audition, experiment and even unpick all those colours, so just on that basis, bravo.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Debbie says:
    January 21, 2018 at 8:04 am

    What a lovely project 😍.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. nanacathy2 says:
    January 21, 2018 at 8:18 am

    Wow, you raise the bar every time with your stitching.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Debbierose says:
    January 21, 2018 at 8:48 am

    beautiful thread colours, and those flying geese look stunning

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Faby Reilly says:
    January 21, 2018 at 9:09 am

    Ooh that looks like a marvellous project!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. Emma says:
    January 21, 2018 at 9:10 am

    This is so awesome, super pretty!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Sewing Beside the Sea says:
    January 21, 2018 at 11:08 am

    What a lovely new project. This is perfect for the SAL with lots of mini finishes. Beautiful colour choices.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. KerryCan says:
    January 21, 2018 at 11:50 am

    That’s an amazing etui! I love the design–you’ll love using it!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. Deb says:
    January 21, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    This a going to be a lovely project to watch come together!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Carole @ From My Carolina Home says:
    January 21, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    Gorgeous! Love your color selection! What a great project.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. kathyreeves says:
    January 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    Choosing colors is so hard for me! I think you’ve done a great job, thus far, hopefully it will get easier with each season!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. sparkscrochet says:
    January 21, 2018 at 3:04 pm

    What a very fun project! So beautiful!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. tialys says:
    January 21, 2018 at 5:26 pm

    What a beautiful project. I’m really looking forward to seeing your progress with this.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. tierneycreates says:
    January 21, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    Oh my goodness is that going to be an amazing piece! What a pretty way to organize crafting materials – wow! Makes me wish I knew how to cross stitch. Well I will just live viciously and watch the progress of yours on your blog 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  17. claire93 says:
    January 21, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    what a delightful design!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  18. Carole says:
    January 21, 2018 at 7:05 pm

    Wow, that is gorgeous. Love the colours you’re using for Spring. They look lovely together 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  19. Christina says:
    January 21, 2018 at 9:18 pm

    This is such a fun and beautiful pattern! Those linens are very pretty. Looking forward to seeing Spring grow as I’m eager for the Spring season myself!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  20. anne54 says:
    January 21, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    You certainly love a challenge, but your stunning stitching will make it look beautiful! I looked again and saw a little box sitting in the middle. What’s that used for?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  21. jessicacrafts says:
    January 21, 2018 at 10:29 pm

    This looks very fiddly but your choices of colours so far look fab and I can’t wait to see how this grows. So interesting!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  22. Kate says:
    January 22, 2018 at 2:40 am

    I love what you’ve done so far, great colour choices!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  23. Catherine says:
    January 22, 2018 at 8:18 am

    These are such lovely projects and your colours are just beautiful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  24. rutigt says:
    January 22, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    What can I say…Such a lovely and fun project and I think you are doing alright when choosing embroidery threads!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  25. lbick says:
    January 22, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    It’s going to be beautiful. Like your color choices.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  26. thecraftersapprentice says:
    January 23, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    wow, that’s going to be fabulous!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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