| One of the first crafts I remember doing when I was a little frockdolly was embroidery, despite my frequent tendency to either stitch things to my skirt or snip holes in my trousers with my scissors. My mum would take me on weekend courses run by the Embroider’s Guild, where I remember stitching pictures of hot air balloons and buying small bags of matching fancy fabrics to take home. Before I was old enough to stitch anything myself, we had lived in the Far East & I remember vividly the beautiful silk embroideries that adorned the walls of our home, or that my glorious mum would stitch onto our clothes; I used to love hunting through her collection of iron-on transfers, helping to choose the next one.  |
| My mum stitched this beautiful word onto a baby jacket |
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| One of the divine Korean embroideries I grew up with, I used to stare at it for hours, lost in the stitches. |
The embroidered pictures now hang on my walls, but it’s only
recently that I’ve taken up the needle and thread again myself with any real
dedication. I’ve done the occasional bit
of stitchery in the last 10 years, but my focus has usually been more on
knitting and crochet, which of course require much bigger needles!
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| A satin stitch rose - probably the last time I picked up a needle & thread! |
The thing is, I’ve always liked looking embroidery though (like at this recent V&A show - still my favourite museum!), and
although not as frequent as my purchases of knitting books and vintage craft
magazines (more on that particular…ahem… ‘obsession’ in a later post!), I can
never resist a good embroidery book, especially an old one:
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| Love a good vintage embroidery book! |
But now, to help to fully reacquaint myself with actual
stitching again, I’m taking part in a project called 1 year of stitches, aiming
to chronicle 2017 with one stitch (or more, or a motif) per day, a stitched
journal of sorts…and given how bad at keeping a diary I’ve always been, I’m hoping
that I can keep this up for the year! The
project was the brainchild of the textile artist Hannah Claire Somerville, and
you can follow her stitched journey through 2016 and now 2017 on Instagram, not
to mention see who else is stitching and maybe join in yourself (and yes, I'm on there too as frockdolly_handmade)
Starting on New Year’s Day with a small firework, I’ve so
far stitched (amongst other things), snowflakes, a haggis, Batman and a mermaid’s
tail. I’ve learnt some new stitches;
buttonhole scale filling, French knots on stalks and whipped wheels to name but
a few, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year will
bring!
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| Some of my stitches so far this year...what will the next 330 days bring? |
Now the thing is, I haven’t been able to stop there, and I’ve
been experimenting with a few other techniques, including cross-stitch, which
is something I haven’t done since my teenage need to create order with thread…what
other crafts from my past will I re-visit this year, I wonder?
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| Cross-stitch...many a cross word had trying to get this right (it has been a few years!) |
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| My absolute favourite summer flower, the nasturtium, jazzed up with thread & beads. |
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
- W.S. Merwin "Separation" 1993
