Stitcheries!

Hello again all you compulsive sewers! It's been a while since my last post, over a week I think, but the weather has been so lovely and I have been spending more time out in the garden with my vegetables and flowers! Also I have been sewing a few stitcheries. The one I'm showing today has just been finished, and it will be up on my website soon as a kit and a pattern when I have written all the instructions and made up a stitch code etc.
The easiest way to describe stitchery is to say it is very much like drawing with threads. Cross stitch is sewn using a chart and has a structure of squares. Stitchery is free sewing following a tracing on the fabric. It can be very easy using just back stitch, or more complicated depending on the different types of stitches used. I tend to keep to simple stitches such as back stitch and running stitch. In some designs I use french knots and lazy daisy stitch, and very occasionally you may find some satin stitch too! I love cross stitch and that is what I have always sewn, but lately I have become smitten with stitchery, perhaps because of its freedom.

At the moment I am still working on some amoosing stitcheries! I have been sewing them as and when I get a chance, and I will post them up as soon as I finish them. Just can't waste this sunshine though; everything in the garden is blooming or beginning to bloom now. The poppy seeds I sowed have now got flower buds on and I can't wait to see what they are like, as they are mixed. The petunias are flourishing now along with the bay trees which are planted in galvanised tin buckets. In the vegetable patch all kinds of things are happening - the pumpkin now has a tiny fruit just starting, the mange tout have been joining us at the table for a couple of weeks now and they grow quite quickly too. Also, the runner beans now have beautiful flowers, which makes the plant worth growing even if you couldn't eat it!


Well thats all for today, hopefully I will get some more time soon to complete more stitcheries and then perhaps a cross stitch or two! Suzie X. www.itch2stitch.com

Inspiration!

I've spent a few days working on some new designs, lets just say they are amoosing! Today I was drawing them and getting them ready for me to sew up. The rest of the day has been taken up by cleaning the house and getting it ready for the weekend, as I always like it to look its best then! However I did manage to get out into the garden too and tend my plants, all are coming along well, except for my borage, which is looking a bit bedraggled and sorry for its self :( . I think that perhaps one of it's neighbours are a bit too demanding.

I took a photo of some flowers on my kitchen table, although, perhaps just on the edge of being blooming! I love the combination of colours, and it has started me thinking hmmmmm.....

Planting and sewing!

Well, I actually did manage to get out in the garden to plant up some runner beans, petunias and peas. It was a glorious day, with bees buzzing and butterflies fluttering. We have only lived here for six months, so every turn is a surprise. Its like my birthday everyday, finding a plant or flower that I didn't realise was there! Little gifts turning up all over the place. After I finished in the garden, I managed to finish off the last few details of my long sewed design! This little girl has been on the go for a long time, she sits in a garden of flowers with her little fairy friend, and is sewn on 14 count aida, with DMC threads. This one took me quite a while to sew, as I have so many designs on the go at once. It is called 'The Meeting', and I really enjoyed sewing this one! I used my original drawing, and slowly (very!) transferred her to cross stitch bit by bit, It was quite a laborious task, but I feel the effort was worthwhile. If I get time later I will scan the original drawing and upload it to this post.

Well thats all from me for today, I'm going to go and sew some simple hearts with little sayings on calico, with a hessian background, not sure how they will turn out yet, we will see, but at this moment they look quite promising. Be back soon! Suzie.x

I think the weathers going to break!

well, considering that I never made it out into the garden today to sew my new project, I wonder if I will get the chance tommorow? I also haven't shown any stitchery as I said I would in my last post! I definitely will do soon! The time goes so fast, and sometimes I seem to get caught up in the mundane everyday things instead of what I really want to do. But, I wonder, is anything really mundane? surely, every minute and every task is so precious. Even the things that we may consider as not very interesting, or a right royal pain, are worth our consideration as a part of our lives. So, having considered this, I must try to look at everything in a fresh new way. We miss so much every day. Tommorow, I will finish my latest project, and hopefully plant my lettuce seeds and plant up my chimney pots! Unless of course I get caught in the web of everyday things. You know the kind of thing; you go to empty the bin and it spills all over the floor, you go to do another job and it ends up being twenty jobs! Sometimes everything seems to take much longer than it should. There is, I have read, a form of meditation, where all you need to do really, is just concentrate on everything you do during the day, and I mean really mundane tasks, like washing up. Just block everything out except that one mundane task, and you realise that all you have is just that moment, and that it is all you need. A beauty in Simplicity! A bit like sewing really! it takes you to another place... and isn't it really nice there! Suzie. X

A lovely day sewing in the garden not quite gone to plan!

Hello all you avid sewers out there!
Its been another hot day here in lancashire, and I was going to do some more sewing outside, but I just haven't got there yet! In fact the only things Ive done outside so far is water my vegetables, which hopefully are still happy out there! I'm working on a new design - it is of some birdhouses with a buzy bumble bee buzzing about. I will post pics soon!
I don't know about you, but I always have some project on the go, and quite often I have several on the go at once!
The last design I created was a cross stitch. A little angel. She actually has made it out into the garden! She is holding a pretty posie and around her are simple flowers. I love angels, and I may even believe in them! I know there are lots of you out there who do too! One of the joys of doing cross stitch is seeing the lovely texture and colours of the threads raised up above the fabric. I really enjoyed designing this one and loved sewing her. She behaved herself very well, and stayed still, even when I was doing the fiddly bits! In my next post, I will show you some stitchery, which is quite different to cross stitch, but is very satisfying to sew, and looks very effective. Its possibly more free than cross stitch (coss stitch is harder in a way to design, as you have to stick to working with squares). Will explain in another post a bit better than I have this time! Suzie X