Stitching Journal Project.

The Stitched Journal Project is: Makers from around the world creating one “page” or piece of work per month and sharing. It is a project to get the ideas flowing, to process the days in a creative way, to try new techniques and to push past fears that keep us from making something.  It isn’t about perfection, or getting it “just right,” it is about process and perspective.

I read this last month first on Knitsofacto and then by blog hop  to Lola. I couldn’t sleep that night- the participating blogs in the March project just triggered something in me which had remained dormant for too long, far far too long.

When I say couldn’t sleep I mean it. Fortunately Mr E was away on business and couldn’t object to the 3am rooting through my fabric and thread stashes.

And fortunately for me I knew just what project I would start with. A long put off embroidery of a poppy field which had been fermenting in my head for YEARS. For me this really felt like a re awakening, the realization that I could not should not put off creating in stitches the things that moved me with beauty, memories, joy. I had to get over whatever it was that had stopped me from just creating and had turned me into a reproducer of others’ ideas.

So I found the project , all ready with my inspiration source. I mean who doesn’t love a poppy field.

And in this year which commemorates a 100 years since the start of the war to end all wars… what could be more appropriate. Most of us have a family member lost in war- in this case my grandmother’s most beloved youngest brother.

As this is a stitching journal I took photos at each stage to remind me how I set about this  project.

First I found the fabric I had prepared years ago- it is just a piece of old sheet and and some old net curtain, painted with ordinary water colour paint.

I start with long and short stitch.

A line across the top. I have marked out in stitches  an outline of where I will be going.

A workshop I attended years ago came back to me.. don’t create rigid lines but bring your needle up to the side of the stitch. it creates a better effect.

Here is the field of green complete. I used three greens DMC 702, 703 and 704- use three numbers that run like this to be in the same tonal range.

Next to make a stone wall, I cut out of  thin cardboard the shapes of the stones.

Cover them with fabric

And attached them with small stitches.

Now to the poppies

I experiment on a piece of spare fabric before settling on seeding stitches for distance then french knots for middle distance.

Here they come

But what for the foreground- ribbon embroidery for the poppies, with black french knots in the centre.

And finally after all this time I have my poppy field. I can’t begin to tell you how happy it has made me to create something all by myself from scratch. I really feel I have got past the fears that stopped me from doing this, with the help of fellow stitching bloggers.

Will I be back next month- YOU BET.Do check out the other posts here