A Textured White Bookmark

This little book mark was born form spotting a scrap of fabric in a bag on my coffee table. It was left over from making some Christmas decorations, but not big enough to make another one. It was big enough, however, to make a book mark.

What to do? Firstly it needed a buttonhole edge to finish it, and I had a thought I would work a needle lace edge later. I have found over the last few years that I find straight buttonhole stitch edging a little boring. It just needs a little something to add to it.

OK, so the buttonhole stitch was done, now what? I needed some inspiration so looked in a few books to see what inspired. I spotted a lovely edge of two rows of 4 sided stitch with bullions angled in a zig zag worked in between. This would do. I am so used to counting by four, I left only four threads between the two rows of 4 sided stitch. It really needed more, possibly at least six threads to make the bullions stand out, and then it may of been too wide for this little book mark. A lesson learned for next time.

So once this row was done, I was left with a blank space in the center which needed to be filled. Back to my book for some more inspiration. I spotted some bullion flowers that would work nicely, so spaced them out evenly,  then worked a row of satin in between, also decorated with bullions.

The little book mark was cut out, and I decided to only put a small amount of needle lace in the corners, rather than all the way around the edge. Then I made a tassel to finish it off.

I am quite happy with my new little book mark and do intend to use it.

The Effects Of Colour

Isn't it amazing how colour can change the feel of a finished piece? The above two little tissue pack covers are both made from the same hand dyed fabric and both have the same stitching pattern as decoration. The only thing that is different is the colour.

With the top one I started with a commercially dyed variegated thread in a harmonious colour scheme, then picked out some of the colours to use in plain dyed stranded thread. I think the end result is very pretty.
The bottom one is more of a triadic colour scheme, using the blue of the fabric with red & yellow stitching. A much more dramatic effect than the top one.

Out of the two, the top one is my favourite. I have always loved cool colours in a harmonious colour scheme. I am still not sure of the triadic colour scheme though, but many of the people from my stitching group loved it. All a matter of taste no doubt.

SS Band Sampler

I have finished stitching the last sampler of the Stitching Sister Counted Thread Band Sampler Round Robin.

This sampler is for Margaret, who has stitched the up/down tulip design at the top. For my band at the bottom, I tried to keep the flow of pink & green that seemed to be happening. I played with designs on graph paper first then decided the colour. The stitching started with two rows of 4 sided stitch, with 6 threads removed between the rows. I then needleweaved the remaining threads to keep them strong. Above the 4 sided stitch I worked groups of radiating straight stitches, while below is a row of large eyelets which have been outlined in back stitch. The top row was then mirrored below the eyelets.

I feel a little sad now that this is all over. I love stitching counted thread work of all types and this RR has been an excuse to venture out with colour & stitch combinations.