EXAMPLES of PROJECTS FOR YOUR STITCHBOOK

Once you have tried a few of the techniques from this workshop, you will probably have found that some suit you better than others. I find that I quite often start with the intention of making a neat, thoughtful piece of slow stitching, but when I begin to interact with the fabric and the stitches, a more intense knotted approach appears, and it tends to suit me better than precision - I guess it depends quite a lot on my mood (!).

Why not try making a piece of work for your stitchbook which includes the layering and stuffing techniques we have looked at. Don’t necessarily have an outcome in mind. Remember that slow stitching is about recognizing the PROCESS, and accepting the outcome.

On this page are pieces of work which you might find useful as inspiration. The wooden laser-cut letters came from the online store called ’The Works’. You might also take a look at the work of our featured artist, Diane Savona, page 12/13

The elephant was made using the Trapunto technique, and I then added extra layers, behind and on top, and quilted through all 5 and 6 layers at the same time.

Don’t forget to look on Pinterest and YouTube for inspiration.

I was particularly pleased with this piece of work, and it is a perfect example of not knowing where the stitching will take you .. if you can, just go with it and see what happens. On the right is a photograph of the work at one of it’s initial stages.

I trapped some wool roving and felt balls within 2 layers of muslin, and then stitched them down onto a piece of calico, using the ubiquitous running stitch. I quite liked the gnarled textures I was making, until I thought of varicose veins! As soon as I’d seen that, I couldn't just leave it as it was, so I added some black seed stitches to emphasize the raised areas. The flat pebble in the photo is one which I had wrapped in calico, and it is just sitting on the surface.

I managed to pull some of the running stitches a little tighter than I had intended, because there was an annoying knot in the thread. I really liked the way the roving and felt balls began to bunch up. I thought that they looked rather like seeds in a pod, or something oyster or shellfish-like from the sea, certainly very organic.

I put the work to one side for a while, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the felt sea urchin which I had made in a felting workshop several years ago, and decided that it had obviously been sitting waiting for this small piece of slow stitching to join it.

I think that it makes a wonderful combination of texture, pattern and colour, and I will carry on thinking about the possibilities it has inspired.

What do you think? Have you got any work which you can show to the group which ended up being a real favorite, even though it was created purely by serendipity and chance.

As Charles Darwin said, ’changes happen by pure chance, and then, if they prove to be beneficial they are perpetuated.’

Send images of ‘trusting your process’ to me with a few words to: thestitchbook@aol.com