There are so many inspiring videos out there.
I am a great fan of Fabled Thread brand and this video is an interview with Effie, the founder. It is informative and is concerned with how she started the business and where the journey has led her so far.
(Here is another rabbit hole I intend to explore in the form of the "Empowering Creative Channel" and "Artfully Crafted' with Alienor Cros. )
As part of the 'slow down', that is a result of the new medication, I thought I would clean out my bookmarks. (You know, all those blogs and websites you are going back to look at but rarely do!). Of course, off I went surfing, just to make sure I really wanted to delete any of them.
One I decided I wouldn't delete was The Postman's Knock.
This is calligraphy blog and I found that all the practices she talks about as being beneficial applied to my Kogin Stitching. (Same process different application.)
She has some free downloads for meditation using Calligraphy on her site.
I have free downloads of all the Hishi Zashi patterns.
I have 2 quilt sandwiches made up ready for quilting and I have started on the first. I'm just following the design of the fabric. My new 'walking foot' is wonderful to sew with. I'm sure I was sold the wrong one before.
And a few more stitches in the needle case. And then I realised it is the same design as the one I made over 20 years ago as my first prototype using old sandwich tray doilies.
And I am back stitching my Shakespeare project again, now that I have learnt how to stitch canvas stitches again.
And with the knitting I have 10 rows to go before the collar. I will get there, eventually!
It is July which means "World Embroiderers' Day is soon. If you are in Brisbane you might like to attend the following event to mark this day.
I can understand why I couldn't find any information on how to insert a small count canvas into a larger one, it is a complicated process. I could find references to how to insert small pieces, like a face or a flower, so I used the principles of this and extended it to suit my own piece.
1. I tacked the small count canvas behind the large count and attached it with a cross stitch and tacking that went through both pieces of canvas and then marked the centre point.
2. Before I cut the large count canvas (at the front) I stitched a row of tent stitch all the way around to hold the piece in place and then cut from the centre with a large X. (I'm not sure if this stitching was necessary but it made me feel more secure.)
3. Withdrew threads back to the stitched line and took these to the back of the canvas. I then wove these threads into the canvas.
The weaving in of the cut threads was an ongoing process.
This was the time consuming part.
It was all trial and error at this point and I unpicked my first line of light coloured wool and used a darker thread.
This was also my first experience with working with mono canvas which is made from a synthetic thread and is very thick an has little if any give in the thread.
5. After unpicking my original rows of woollen thread I used a COTTON 5PLY THREAD and stitched 3 rows of varying sized lines in tent stitch using Caron Watercolor thread. Then, I trimmed away the excess unravelled mesh.
I varied the width of the stitching, stitching over one and then 2 rows, around the join to stablise it even further.
I still had some spots of white mesh showing so I coloured this with a permanent ink pen.
I don't think I would bother going to this much trouble in the future unless I had a very special piece I wanted to use, but, it shows it can be done, and it was a good learning experience.