I continue to stitch away on a regular basis. In fact I probably spend more time on stitching than anything else. I try to get in between two to three hours work every weekday morning. Fairly keeps you busy. Anyway I have now completed another four little projects. The first was to finish the project I had started in January, which I call Broken Ribbons. The basic pattern is from Pauline Fischer and Anabel Lasker’s wonderful book, Bargello Magic. There the pattern is called French Ribbons. As you can see I have cut out two little circles from the fabric, which I have filled with pieces of painting done by my grandson, Jamie. Here is the finished piece.
The idea was to add a bit of texture to the stitched fabric. I now hope to finish it off by mounting and framing the piece. To this end I will be attending a two day course on mounting and framing at DCA next weekend. So wish me luck with this new adventure.
The next project was also an experiment of sorts. At least for me. Another of my collection of books on stitching is called Free-Form Bargello, by Gigs Stevens. I must admit that after leafing through the book I was never too sure about whether I liked this approach or not. Basically you draw on the canvas a series of concentric and irregular shaped circles which you then fill in with simple vertical stitches. Anyway I gave it a try and here is the outcome.
Now that it is completed I quite like the overall design. It was also good fun filling in the rows as you could vary the vertical lines of stitches to create mini patterns within each row. To add a bit of interest to the piece I started off with two pomegranates in a more traditional bargello style. This project was stitched on white interlock canvass using Anchor tapestry wool.
For my next project I decided to give bargello a little break and went back to my collection of traditional Palestinian motifs. Harp and Lilies has a harp in the centre flanked by two lilies. The harp is framed with a line of edging known as Bachelors’ cushion. To finish it off I added some Moons of Bethlehem. This piece was stitched on an 18ct Aida cloth in bright Christmas red using DMC cotton threads. The colour scheme was blues and greens. As my collection of Palestinian motifs is only in black and white, I have no idea whether my choice of colours is is any sense “Palestinian”. Anyway here is what it looks like.
My latest project was to make another little cube using some new designs from Louison. This was Série No 8 négatif, which consists of six 30 pt squares. Designed to be used to make biscornus, if you stitch all six squares together you can make a lovely little cube. I have filled mine with hollow fibre and some lavender to make a lavender cube. The fabric is an 18ct Aida in pale yellow and the threads are all DMC cotton in various shades of reds. Here are two views of the completed cube.
For my next project I am about to start on another kind of Free-form Bargello, which should be pretty exciting. Happy stitching to everyone.
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