May TIF - Finished?

On the original the area of blue fabric above white lace is left unstitched. I like it that, but my 'fabric' is long satin stitches, without some stitching to secure them they are too vulnerable. I decided to add my monogram. I think the 'C' is a particularly boring letter and looked long and hard for one that I though ornate enough but not too intricate to stitch at the size I required.

To stitch the monogram I combined knowledge gathered from Mary Corbet’s blog on stitching a monogram and padding techniques I have learned in Japanese Embroidery. I padded the letter with strands of padding cotton, starting with a single strand, adding more strands as the pen stroke became wider and removing them as it tapered away. I found it difficult to work the satin stitches around the tight curves and on the macro shot they look too spaced apart on the bottom of the letter.


Isn’t it funny how one thing leads to another? About 2 years ago I was looking for information on seasonal colours for kimonos and came across Hideko’s blog. It was the first textile/embroidery blog I had ever seen! Over the next few days, I read every entry on her blog and then started clicking on the links in her side bar; that led me to Sharon Boggon’s blog. Well, that led me to so much, first TAST and my own blog, then TIF and now Stitching Fingers and an RSS feed list as long as your arm. I’m sure it was Sharon that directed me to Allison Aller’s blog. Allison creates beautiful crazy quilts with her own distinctive style. I’m not sure if it was Sharon or Allie herself that directed me to Judy Harper who reinterprets Allies quilts in her own unique way. Judy selects a small segment of the quilt and reproduces it in canvas work and these have intrigued me from the beginning. I was thinking about Judy’s take on Allie's quilts when I had my Aha! moment back on the 28th May. My plan was to reinterpret in my own style the beautiful block stitched by Sharon that inspired the colour palette for the May TIF. Instead of piecing a fabric block and adding lace and ribbons, I would recreate them all in stitch.


I would like to thank Sharon for the inspiration and for her permission to rework her original design. I could not have designed this myself, I am not a designer but I have had immense fun figuring out how to reproduce the laces and jacquard fabric in stitch. What do I call myself? I call myself an embroiderer.

I think the block is finished now, I still have concerns about the trailing vine on the left and may yet add to it but I am so pleased with the overall block that I am afraid to spoil it now. Maybe I’ll leave it for a few days before deciding.

Happy Stitching.