My last embroidery project was the floral wreath I made at Christmas! It’s been 9 months and I’ve barely made anything, absolutely shocking! I don’t really know why that is, I think I’ve just been distracted with other things – like blogging, videogames (Two Point Campus, Two Point Museum, Tiny Bookshop!) and trying to get 8,000 steps a day. I can do the former while I walk on my treadmill in the evening, but I can’t stitch and walk!
While moving more is obviously good, the lack of stitching and making things with my hands has started to feel like a void in my life. I miss the sound and the feeling of stabbing a needle through the fabric, and pulling the thread taut! It’s very therapeutic.
I have had one project on a slow burn for a few months, though, and I finally finished! This was a Hobbycraft Tate kit that I’d asked for and received a few Christmasses ago. The kit is Sir John Everett Millais’s painting of Ophelia printed onto fabric, and then you get some thread to stitch your own embellishments on top.
I thought it was a fun idea, and this is a beautiful painting that would look lovely framed to hang on the wall.
I worked on the majority of it while re-watching the Lord of the Rings films with my husband and his friends, as milestones for our Walk to Mordor challenge. The whole thing took a lot longer than I thought it would – 3 extended cut LOTR films and then some episodes of The X Files!
I quite enjoyed the process. Some of the embellishments look really cool, but it’s subtle, so at first glance, you may not notice them.
The kit came with plenty of high-quality embroidery floss. A lot more than was needed, but I guess it helps justify the price. I’ll definitely be able to use it for other projects. This included some gold thread, which you can’t see in the photo but is woven through the bodice and the skirt.
My favourite bit was doing her flowers around her body. I love the bright pops of colour. The little while flowers in the background took ages and required a lot of tying off and rethreading, which was annoying.
When I finally had it done, I framed it with a cheap gold frame from IKEA. I did have some issues with the fabric warping from stitches, so I had to use my trick of wetting it and pinning it to a corkboard to stretch it flat before I framed it (I learned this when I had to fix my Chatsworth portrait!).
I think it looks lovely in the gold frame. I took the glass out to take photos, but I’ll put it back before I hang it up on the wall.
I am now itching to start something new! I’ve just been having a hard time deciding what I am in the mood for.
I actually went to my first craft meet-up last week (Big News!), and ended up taking an old sunflower project I’ve been working on for about 3 years, because I couldn’t settle on something in time! I would like to get that finished, but it’s not inspiring to me.. I don’t love it.
I think I’m going to work on some florals. I’ll see what patterns I can find in my Love Embroidery magazines to help me improve my technique. I’ve not properly stitched florals in quite a long time, and I still have half a mind to try to do my wedding bouquet – for that, I will need to practice peonies, which I think have a very tricky petal shape! I also still have some jumpers I’d like to stitch some flowers onto to liven them up.
