Daily Stitching

My daily stitching project has become a very welcome part of my life. I'm really enjoying sitting down everyday to spend a bit of time doing some hand stitching, it's almost like a daily meditation. I spend anywhere from five minutes to an hour doing each one. I start with a four inch square of fabric that I've previously printed in black. All of my stitching is done with pearl cotton in black, I use three different sizes, #5, #8 and #12. Here's a look at my basic supplies.

Many of the squares were cut out of a large piece of fabric that I had mono-printed. The piece didn't come out as I had intended, but cut up each square is slightly different and works perfectly for some hand stitching.

Some of the squares were printed just for this project, but many of them were left over samples I printed from new screens, stamps or found objects. The squares are a variety of fabrics, most of them are cotton, either muslin or a white dyers cloth. There are also linen, rayon, cotton damask and some polyester. The next photo shows pieces cut from polyester that I had printed almost twenty years ago. It is a very thin, flimsy fabric.

This close up shows some damask,muslin and white dyers cloth.

I back each piece with white flannel for two reasons; it gives some definition to the stitches and it adds coverage and stability to the thinner fabrics. I don't use a hoop while stitching. I keep my flannel and thread in a basket, unless I'm traveling and then everything gets tossed into a plastic ziplock bag.

Each piece is numbered when I finish it. I started on my birthday and will finish the day before my next one. This is how the back looks.

#225 - #228

Sewn together in rows of 19 blocks each, there are twelve rows completed.

This is the start of today's square, it's a linen and hemp blend fabric cut from a failed mono- print, stitching with #8 thread.

On another note; the autumn inspired piece has changed appearances again and will probably continue morphing since none of it is sewn yet.

Autumn inspiration

Autumn has arrived in Idaho and the leaves are looking pretty good, even the ones that have to be raked up.

Before we left on our trip, I prepared a pile of silk hexagons so that they were ready to baste the edges down. I haven't done them all (and I may not), but the ones that are done have been put up on the design wall. I'm still unsure of how I'm going to put them together and of the final arrangement. I have two very different background fabrics that I'm considering, one a dull green silk noil the other a rust, green, yellow silk broadcloth. My inspiration was an image in my head of the fall colors that I drove through on our trip to the east coast two years ago. Now I'm thinking more of a view from above with a river meandering thru.

Daily stitching project #217 - #224