Hand Stitch Perspectives and a little something extra

A new stitchy book! It’s a rare thing these days. My shelves are already close to collapse, it’s one in, one out. And to be honest, most of the new releases don’t appeal – so often full of the same old basics, simple projects to copy, and “discoveries” that us old hands have seen (and done) before.

Hand Stitch Perspectives has been compiled by Alice Kettle and Jane McKeating. It’s the natural companion to their previous book, Machine Stitch Perspectives - a serious consideration of hand embroidery from various points of view. Whilst there are plenty of photos, this isn’t a “picture book”; it’s a collection of thoughtful essays. I haven’t read much of it yet, and I think it might make my brain hurt, but some of the subjects look fascinating – such as Embroidery and the F-Word (feminism of course!), and Tom Lundberg’s personal journey.   

Ooh, and at the back there’s an “inventions stitch glossary” – exciting samples including cable chain stitch in clay, rubber bands couched onto cardboard, cross stitch tent poles on grass. You can see some of them here.

So if you love embroidery and fancy giving the grey cells a bit of a work out, it might be one for the Christmas list.

And my little something extra? Well it seems this is my 100th post – ta-daah! I’m still only a beginner at this blogging business (just as everyone else is spending more time on Facebook, ha), and I’ve slowed down recently as life has got tough. Also, my blog has very few Followers, although quite a lot more people (especially in Russia and Turkey!) seem to read it.

So I’ll combine a little giveaway with a shameless bid to gain a few Followers. Leave a comment on here by 9 a.m. GMT on Monday 29th October, and if you’re also a Follower you’ll be entered into a draw to win this “Bloom” stick pin brooch. It’s my own design, built up from layers of lacy free machining on dissolvable fabric. Similar ones are for sale in my Etsy and Folksy shops, but those have different brooch pins – I’m still not sure which I prefer. 

Go on, you can always un-follow me after the draw… but I’m hoping you’ll forget!

NOT a sketchbook

I’m a very reluctant sketcher. To put it mildly. But I still wanted some little souvenir, “artistic response” (!) from my week on Mull. This is what emerged. It’s no great work of art, but it was fun and it’s full of memories for me.

Cover – decorated with broken bits of mussel shell stitched to torn paper.

The little Pink Pig book was one I already had, only about 4” square – not too intimidating? The pages were easily removed to play with. And I took minimal basic materials with me, like a few Neocolour watercolour crayons, needle and threads, knife, pen, pencil and brush.

Then through the week I collected bits here and there and set off a few experiments. As the weather was so good (sorry!) we were out all the time, so not everything got finished before I left - I’ve had to add the finishing touches back home.

So, these are all the pages I ended up with.

Title – cut from newspaper.

Ripples – beach sand mixed with PVA, paper stencil.

Diving gannets – paper cut, after seeing the Sarah Morpeth exhibition. Even more respect for her work after this, ouch!

Columnar basalt cliffs – stitch.

Rust stains – found metal with tea.

Marram grass – pen.

Felt – found wool loosely wet felted and stitched.

Oak leaves – pencil off the edges of fresh green leaves.

Weave – split flag iris leaves woven into slits in the page.

Ring of bright water (otter!) – indented, pencilled over.

Foxgloves – wet brushed Neocolour, fine pen.

Beach markings – tea stain, burned stick.

Stone sculpture – pierced holes.

Birch leaves – fresh leaves printed with Neocolour.

I even made a dangle for the spine from holey shells and found string, but no, it wasn’t me… well none of this is really, I’m a dedicated machine embroiderer, but hey, you’ve got to try something different on holiday, haven’t you?