Bustle & Sew Free Spring Stitchalong

And now for something completely different!  That is to say, something I haven’t done before – a Bustle & Sew stitchalong.  One of the (many) reasons I love hand embroidery is that there’s always something new to discover, though like many stitchers I am guilty of keeping to a few well-tried and trusted stitches and techniques. And this is why I thought it would be fun to start our very own Bustle & Sew stitch-along.

Armed only with my Grandma’s copy of Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches I have drawn up a pattern that I think will be perfect to work as a sampler with each book spine featuring a different selection of stitches. There will be weekly updates on how I’m getting along, video tutorials on some of the less familiar stitches (we’ll be learning together) and full details of my choice of stitches and patterns.

I’d love this to be an interactive process, so if you do decide to stitch along with me and would like to share your work then please do CLICK HERE to join my Stitchalong list. (Please do excuse the grubby-looking Sulky Sticky Fabri Solvi above, I dissolved some of it away to work my filling stitches better and somehow the ink on the remainder became a bit smudged).  I’ll be sending out weekly updates with suggestions, videos, progress made and stitch diagrams as we go along.  It would be great if anyone else had any suggestions or ideas for stitches to use in this project, as I think it would be a lot of fun to make this into a joint creation.

I’ve set up a group on Flickr to share our work – you can join the group here. If you’re not a Flickr member then you’ll need to join to post photos (it’s easy, free and safe) but if you don’t want to join then you can still look at other people’s work by visiting that link.

Above you can see a detail of my Pekinese stitch (I’ve never worked this stitch before).  Now I’ve practised it a bit I plan to post a new video short on how to work it later this week.  I’d also like to include small motifs in my sampler, such as the flowers you can see as I think it’s also important to record techniques as well as stitches.  I’m hoping Rosie will share her technique for creating the lovely flowers on the necklaces she makes too.   I hope if you’re a hand embroiderer that you’ll think this is a good idea, and want to join in – remember it’s free, friendly and FUN!!

Just click here to join and get the pattern to download ready to start stitching.