It’s three weeks since I shared another two pages for my #stitching4thesoulbook which was a SAL organised by Anne Brooke of Hanne-made during the first lock-down. The videos are all still on YouTube so I’ve been working my way through them. I was hoping to have another pair of pages finished to share but I’ve still a little stitching to do, but here’s my progress so far…
The basis of this pair of pages was weaving, so we cut varying strips of fabric and pinned them to a base. Anne is stitching hers straight into a book made from wadding, whereas I’m using the individual calico pages from Untangled Thread, so I’m having to adapt things sometimes. I used quite a heavy furnishing fabric which was in the sample book I’m using as a starting point for these stitchings. Here is the first row of strips pinned on with a couple of trims already making an appearance…
Anne suggested leaving gaps for extra interest.. I then wove the shorter strips along, again the weaving is uneven to add interest. As you can see I also shuffled strips a bit to get a nice blue square of the base fabric, I tried to line the checks up with the crossways strips and also positioned the flower centre so it ‘worked’ with the flower going across. Once I was happy the strips were stitched down round the edge to keep the piece secure…
Now came the fun part, embroidering the piece! I’m trying once I’ve watched the video not to watch it again so I’m not too influenced by what Anne did, I can bring ideas and techniques to it whilst making it my own. I chose some embroidery threads, three blue, ecru and a couple of variegated ones. As you can see I also had a rummage in my button drawer…
The first thing I did was actually to cut down the centre of the backing and cut away a strip, I realised with the heavy backing fabric plus the weaving it was getting pretty thick to fold in the book. By removing a strip it makes the weaving strips can fold like a hinge and also adds interest with a ‘window in the middle. I’m blanket stitching along those edges as they seemed more liable to fray with movement.
I then stared embroidering…I continued a leaf on to the strip above and added more stitching to the blue embroidered fabric. I used feather stitch down the two blue and gold strips, sometimes it ‘goes under’ with the fabric and sometimes it carries on over the top. The darke blue square is embroidered with pistil stitch which is a bit likea french knot on a stalk. My original plan was to have a button in the centre of the square, but I’m undecided on that one. ..
…I used rice stitch on the woven ivory strip, it’s a coarse enough weave to count it easily. Anne stitched a square of running stitch which covered several strips of weaving, I didn’t have an area where that would work but I hit on the idea of circles centred around a button. I laid some round dies on to see what it looked like and liked it, so I traced round the dies and stitched it with the darker blue.
I still need to stitch the blue circle over the flower, I’m thinking of pistil stitch again for that one. Some of the lace still needs stitching down and I’m still tempted with the ‘handmade’ button, maybe on a strip of frayed gauze. Then there’s just a couple of areas to stitch on, decide how to finish the ends of the strips and then stitch it onto the pages, hoping my idea of a ‘hinge’ works!
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea. We post our progress on our chosen project every three weeks, just long enough to keep us motivated. Please follow the links to see what everyone else is stitching.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen
thecraftycreek 
This page is beautiful. I love the fabrics that you chose for the weaving and the variety of embroidery stitches. You must have quite a stash of buttons as you found just the right colors for this piece.
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I love the soft, vintage colours you’ve chosen.
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What an interesting section this is. Love the color choices.Really like the contrast with the circles 🙂
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Fantastic! I think it’s a nice expression of free art … I love the colors you are using .. I like to see how you will complete it ..
Hugs, Carmela
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Amazing and beautiful…
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So much eye candy on this piece 🙂
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Very creative, I love the all the texture combinations
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For Pete’s sake! I didn’t realize you’d started Anne’s book project. Or I’d forgotten. In either case, I’m delighted to see what you’re doing with it. Carry on, and have fun!
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So creative! I look forward to seeing more.
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How lovely!!
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The colors are beautiful and I love the embroidered details!
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This is delightful ~ the colour selection, the mixture of fabrics, the stitching. So much to enjoy. Thanks for taking us through the process too. By the way, have you come across Jane laFazio’s work? What you are doing reminds me a bit of what she does.
https://janelafazio.com/?doing_wp_cron=1607292857.9056410789489746093750
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Thanks, I’ll have a look at her work 🙂
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So serene and restful. I love how you stretch yourself and try new things Margaret.
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Your page is so beautiful! I am planning on making this book and have dyed some fabric to make the book yet. I haven’t started the pages though. Your page is very inspiring.
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Ooh, yours sounds like it’s going to be interesting, I like the sound of a hand-dyed book.
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Wow, there’s so much to look at on this one. I love the colours and the embroidery and everything about it. Fabulous!
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I love her ideas and work! I´m stitching the 12 pages of Christmas.
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I think she’s great, it’s like having your best friend stitching along on her videos. I was tempted with 12 pages of Christmas but decided I had enough on!!
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