The Knoxville group is beginning a study of the Beaney-Littlejohn Stitch Magic next month, and I will be the leader. In preparing for it I have been working on the first of the stitches Double Trouble takes up, Couching Stitch.
Poor, maligned stitch! In their latest video, the pair asserts that a stitcher might take up a single stitch and study it the rest of her/his life and still not know everything there is to discover about that stitch. That may be the most important thing they ever bring to their teaching. I have experienced that realization as I worked— and continue to work— on my experimental sampler of the humble couching stitch. As the stitch is a line stitch, one very similar to a drawn line except the medium is thread rather than paint or pencil, I am not sure if all the permutations actually help the line or simply decorate it. Whatever the "official" take on all this experimentation, it has not been a task, but more of a delightful treat for myself.
The sampler is being worked on scraps of linen fabric that have been stitched together to form a surface of irregularly sized and placed blocks in cream, olive, beige, and white. The stitching uses, primarily, shades of green. It isn't a finished sampler yet (and may never be), but the journey is so interesting I hope the destination and finish is in the far distance, yet.
Aren't these little guys neat? Fly stitches with a little extra spice added for punch:
The waving lines above are from spools of cotton weaving thread (I have a full cabinet of these wonderful cones) that are stitched down, a single line at a time. My holding down thread is a linen so fine it would be quite passable in my sewing machine!
More stitching to do on it-- I see a wonderful place for French Knots above the altered Fly Stitches . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment