I’m so far behind with both reading and writing blogs, we’re having the kitchen and dining room knocked into one and a bathroom redesigned at the same time…seemed a good idea at the time!! We currently have no kitchen and no downstairs bathroom and we’ll be like this for most of April, whilst my sewing room has been my haven, I’ve spent evenings and weekends stripping wallpaper ready for the plasterer. The plasterer has now started so we do feel we’re past the worst!

Where do I start with catch-up blogs…Bobbin along seems a good place as any, it’s a weekly stitch-a-long by Anne Brooke. She gives us a word as a starting point for a little stitching, she’s doing one big embroidery on a hoop, I’ve enough pictures so I’m adapting it into a book.

Last time I shared it with you I had just stitched slit and hummock…

The following week was ‘dotty’, so I stitched a circle of seed stitches on the same page – I’m keeping a loose theme of circles throughout the book. I overlapped it with the circle above and left an empty circle in the middle. I think this page is now complete!

The following week the prompt word was ‘hidden’, stitching a shape of felt under a piece of fabric. I decide to start a new page as it was nicely giving me a starting point for a blank page. I used the heavier cotton which was the original starting point for my colour scheme. I cut a circle of cotton and under it I hid a circle of felt with a cut-out and stitched round so just the shape can be seen.

The next word was ‘meander’, couching a thick thread or cord round with a few bands of different threads. I drew a nice curvy meander around the ‘hidden’ circle and then across the double page spread, incorporating another circle as I went. I didn’t have any wool or suitable cord to use for the meander so I used my cord-maker to make a length using a soft teal and a blue DMC wool. It didn’t come out as nice as I hoped but you can’t see much of it anyway!

‘Jump’ was the next word, using short lengths of beads to ‘jump’ across the meandering thread. Luckily I managed not to put any beads where the centre fold will be!

Last week the work was ‘holey’, so I went back to my page with the interlocking arcs on and stitched some Algerian stars in the overlapping area. It was nice to have the opportunity to use the awl in a beautiful wooden handled stitch-ripper I got at a craft fair last year. I might do a few more later one, when I know how space is going.

I’m enjoying this stitch-a-long, it does push me to think and adapt ideas to work for me. This weeks word is ‘running, so I’ve a band of running stitch to fit in somewhere.