time is standing still a little this week - the days move along at a nice quiet pace
there's no rush to be anywhere...
back in late november, early december, whilst wandering about on the internet, i came upon a "stitch along" on quilt mania's website
hosted by bea
the videos are all in french, but i found them surprisingly easy to understand, and the more i watched the more my french improved until after a while i wasn't even trying to translate them in my head
and then of course, embroidery and patchwork have their own universal language
too busy to get started, i printed off the pdf documents, gathered some supplies and set it all aside for this week
i was so entranced by the random nature of this work that i decided to follow along fairly closely, at least at first
each section is completed on it's own, and then in groups, they are attached to a long foundation cloth {i'm using a piece of a very old damask tablecloth - it's exceptionally unruly but i love it so am persevering!}
bea used a vintage piece for her monogram but as i had nothing with a "j" i had to create my own
i remembered a pretty alphabet pattern by alicia of posie gets cozy , found a fragment of an doily, and made my own
layers of cloth, layers of stitch
favourite buttons and pins
bea's method for piecing this tiny new york beauty block is brilliant
i hate foundation piecing on paper but this is done without ever having to sew through the paper - brilliant!
after laying out these first four components, a vine with felt leaves was randomly stitched - the leaves are layered with cheesecloth to add texture and dimension and then veins stitched with variegated embroidery thread
trying to be as random as possible, i didn't draw any lines on the ground fabric, just going with it
the more you add, the more you want to add even more - layering stitches, adding dimension, integrating all the components into something whole
the branch with tiny felt leaves and embroidered fronds adds such a woodland feel to this - i'm envisioning it winding it's way here and there, all the way to the top
there are so many wonderful ideas in this project, and the pieces are all so easily done - tiny treasures
the perfect thing for quiet snowy days when you have nowhere else to be