Long time, no post

Recently, my group leader at work asked if I have given up blogging. I said, “no, but I’ve not had much to blog about, because I’ve not done much stitching lately”. It is true that since April my mojo has been mostly absent but I have been doing some stitching and I do have some things I could write about, including a couple of classes.

My last few blogs were mostly about boxes so let’s continue on that theme. Last year I stitched the Silky Glow Sampler as a group project with some members of the Embroiderers’ Guild, Oxford Branch. When my friend Michiko saw it, she asked what I intended to do with it. I had no plans so Michiko suggested that it would make a nice box lid. Michiko makes beautiful boxes so I ceased the opportunity to request a box making lesson with her.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Michiko is so obliging that she not only agreed to help me make a box, she sourced all of the materials and pre-cut everything so that during the lessons all I had to do was construct the box*. My lessons were conducted as “evening classes” during our week long residential Japanese Embroidery course in March.

© Carol-Anne Conway

The box is made of a very stiff board. The inside is lined with paper and the outside is covered in fabric (linen). All of the components are glued. Because we had limited time each evening and because we needed to do things before the glue dried, we had to work quickly. I did not take a single photograph during the lessons (and, stupidly, I did not take any notes either) so I only have pictures of the finished box.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Actually, this is not the box that I made, there was a small problem with it so Michiko took it home to adjust, which turned out to be more of a reconstruction than a simple adjustment. Michiko made a whole new inside and returned the box to me at our next Japanese Embroidery course in April. This box was designed by Michiko to hold reels of silk and I use it to hold the silks for my current JE project.

© Carol-Anne Conway

But Michiko did not want to waste the inside tray that I had made during our classes so she removed it very carefully … and put it into another box for me.

© Carol-Anne Conway

I am using this one to hold supplies for my "evening" project so now whenever I am stitching I am reminded of my wonderfully talented and generous friend, Michiko. Thank you, so much, Michiko for all the work you put into preparing for the lesson and during the lesson, and thank you for my two beautiful boxes.

Happy Stitching

*to say "all I had to do …" seriously understates the amount of work involved in constructing the box!