It's been going a few years, not sure how many, as I forgot to take note when I started it. It could be about six or seven years ago now.
The piece was inspired by the work of Effie Mitrofanis, one of the tutors at The Embroiderer's Guild NSW. One of the girls in my creative stitching group Stitcher's Plus, had done a workshop with Effie and her finished piece was wonderful, so bright and colourful.
So when I went home, I pulled out some scrap dress linen I had, cut some strips , and hemmed them. This part of the project took forever, I hemmed the strips in amongst doing other things.
Once I had a few strips done I started looking at insertion stitches. I found some in books, and some on-line. I had some calico based needle lace graph strips already made and covered in contact. I used these to make sure my strips of linen were even widths apart, and started on the insertion stitches. Another part of the project that took me forever because I was doing other things.
When I had the strips all joined together, the piece looked plain, so I decided to add some decorative stitching to the strips. Some have drawn thread channels with needle-weaving, some have some black-work type designs. It gave some more dimension to the piece.
Last Thursday I was feeling down, and looked at my UFO pile and decided I needed to finish some. I pulled out these strips, and one other project that needed finishing. Both projects required things doing that needed ironing, and I had packed the ironing board away for another reason, and wanted it left that way for another day. Oh well, tomorrow was another day.I did manage to find some lining fabric ready and a zipper from my stash. So Friday afternoon I pulled out my strips, added some lining and a zipper, and now I have a new little work pouch.
Watch this space for another one to be finished soon.
