As you know from my last post, we were away from home all last week. I took all my stitching gear with me, and unfortunately it just sat by the bed in our hotel the whole damn time. I was so knackered after shifting heavy boxes and counting things all day that I just didn't have the energy. Also it seemed to take us about 2 hours every time to have dinner. Must have been all that cheese! Since we've been home I've been doing some more work on my project for the Feeling Stitchy August Stitchalong. They were really sweet and featured my pictures in their blog twice! So now the pressure is on, I have to do some really good work before the end of the month. I've been following the work of the others and I have to say I'm not sure my work will stand up to theirs. Well I am just a beginner, really! Still, I'm quite pleased with my progress so far. Above is a sneak peek!
August Stitchalong progress
I've made my decision for the August Feeling Stitchy Stitchalong. Thanks to a bit of encouragement from some folks on Flickr, I am going with the zoo animals print. I've made an initial selection of thread colours. The fabric has so many colours in it that I'm sure I'll change my mind a few times before I'm done. I want to use some complimentary colours and also some contrasting ones, but I don't want it to look to colour mentalist. What do you think of my choices?
Check out some of the fabrics chosen by other participants. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's results.
Fabrics
Well, if threads are a gateway drug, I'm already graduating to new addictions. Fabrics! In my sponge-like quest to absorb everything I can about embroidery, I have been seeking out bloggers who are writing about it. I found a wonderful Flickr group and a blog called Feeling Stitchy which brings together some really talented stitchers and provides a platform for a great community of people to sbow off their work. One thing they do which is really fun is a monthly Stitchalong, where everyone works on the same pattern or project at the same time. Such a fun a idea. This month they are doing a project where everyone picks a patterned fabric to embellish with stitches. I am totally up for this - a great project for someone who is just getting started in embroidery, like me!
I tried trusty old eBay, figuring I'd find some cool vintage fabric remnants there. I soon got weary of trolling through pages and pages or ugly fabrics, and the prices weren't cheap either! So I found a great online fabric store, Fabric Inspirations, who sell tons of cool retro style and new prints. I chose these two - a bright birds/flowers pattern, and a zoo animals pattern. Although I like the colours on the top fabric better, I think I might go with the bottom fabric as it seems that lots of people have chosen bird-based patterns for the stitchalong.
I'm going to take a few days to decide.