Sunday Stitchalong and More

Here is my update on Sunday Stitchalong with Chrissie and friends and I do hope you enjoy having a little look!

First off, I now am the proud owner of a 'light box' so that has made life a lot easier - a great investment for small cost. Funny how it happened really - I had one on order from a fabric shop but their supplier let them down and I didn't feel like being patient any longer so managed to get one elsewhere, right there and then,  for a huge 40% off just because the store was having a birthday celebration. And it's a better model than the one I had on order. Am I blessed or what!

Here is what I have worked on - you remember the gorgeous blue wrens I included pics of in a post recently? Well, I just love these little birds so thought it would be a challenge to stitch one and yes, it was a challenge! I used short and long stitch, which I haven't really used before - well, maybe I have  in the long ago distant past but didn't know what I was doing!!! Trying to mimic those vibrant colours was just about impossible but I gave it a good try. Satin stitch was my choice for the little blue heart and the larger heart was done in the same fashion as the wren. The decorative 'swirl' is stem stitch.

For this project I bought new fabric but then wasn't happy with it once I started to stitch - the weave is more open than the ones I've been using and the fabric doesn't have a lot of body to it - drat! However after stitching I gave the piece a hand wash which is my usual practice, and I can say that it's the first time I've ever been happy when a fabric shrunk - not a lot but enough to tighten things up a bit and give a more finished look, to my mind. The top one is the edge of my washed project and on the bottom is the unwashed - can you see the slight difference in the weave?

I bought a floss winder so I can get my threads all tidied up - they're a bit messy now I'm afraid; this little gadget cost just over $2 - a bargain!

Now let me explain something here! Yesterday in my post I mentioned about the type of painting I used to do, and that style has crept into this little design; there's a story behind it. Ten years or so ago our little dog Morgie decided that after sixteen years he was worn out and so very sadly we had to let him go. I was heartbroken over Morgie and for a little healing therapy decided to get the paints out and see what would come forth:

There is my representation of Morgie, my lovely Lhasa Apso, along with some of my favourite things - blue wrens, butterflies, hearts and stylised flowers. Now, look again at my little stitch design and you'll see that I took the idea from my painting, albeit with a few little changes.

While we're on the subject of art deco stylised painting, here are a few others I did long ago which are hanging around our home. I apologise for the quality of these pics - the light was terrible and the reflections made the whole situation worse, so a couple of them are definitely not showing their true colours - but it's just to let you see what I've been talking about. By the way, the walls in our home are all painted in a linen colour, so the colours are definitely way out of whack, as you can see!

The name of the flower in the first painting escapes me and always has, the second one is from a poppy.

The next one is a fuchsia and the last is a leucodendron.

So there we have it - all of this based around my little stitch along blue wren. Or was the wren based around the paintings - yes, that's it!

I haven't decided whether or not to make another cushion from this project or venture into something new, but I'll be working on it!

I hope that those of you who are doing the stitch along have been enjoying yourselves and I'm looking forward to seeing all your work.

A little quote to leave you with:

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt!   Sylvia Plath

I wish you all the very best, have a really good week, and thanks so much for dropping by!

❤Joy xo