Last month I stitched a few rainbows with the excuse that they might become kits but really just because I like stitching these colourful little things and they’re a good opportunity to play with lovely silks . And although “What are you going to do with it?” is The Question That Must Not Be Asked, I do occasionally try and think of ways to finish bits of embroidery. For small designs like these that’s often cards or coasters. Well, with that frilly cloud there was no way it was going to fit into a coaster, and I didn’t want to do another card (I’m a bit low on aperture cards and I haven’t got round to reordering them), so I went for that other staple of embroidery finishes, an ornament.

Now there are people who create the most beautiful flatfolds, pincushions, stuffed ornaments and scissor fobs without breaking a sweat (Vonna Pfeiffer of the Twisted Stitcher springs to mind), but I know that my skills do not lie in that area. The closest I got was this Frosty Pine ornament, and even that should not be looked at too closely…

I do get on rather well with flexi-hoop framing! Felt backing, card backing, foam backing, or even no backing at all still make for a presentable front. But I’ve done a fair few of those, and I wanted to do something different. And then I remembered some 4″ bamboo hoops I bought for kits, thinking they came from the UK (search for UK-only items, seller marked as a UK seller, location of items something like Northampton). They didn’t. They arrived with Chinese customs labels all over the parcel. And they weren’t very good. Heigh-ho, chalk it up to experience, but after several of the outer hoops had snapped I was left with some inner hoops, i.e. bamboo rings. Could I perhaps do something with one of those?

Normally when you use a hoop to finish a piece of embroidery you clamp the fabric between the inner and outer hoop. That was obviously not going to work here. So what about glue? I tend not to like getting glue anywhere near my stitching, but as I was just experimenting I decided to give it a go. Draw a circle around the design on the back of the fabric using the bamboo ring, cut with an allowance of about twice the depth of the ring, glue the outside of the ring and pull the fabric taut over it, glue the inside of the ring and stick the excess fabric to it. So far so good, although I could have done with a little more fabric in places.

I could have left it like that and told anyone who looked at it not to pick it up and turn it over, but I decided to go for something a bit neater. Some nice thick wadding to give a bit of body to what is quite a thin fabric (if I used it in a kit I would definitely have supplied backing fabric to support the stitching), and then a circle of craft foam. Brown because that’s what I happened to have; not the most attractive look, but it’ll do. Using my trusty pointy scissors I trimmed the edges of the foam (aiming for a chamfer – not sure I quite got it) so it wouldn’t be visible from the front, and that was that.

The result is a little rustic looking, but I like it! It’s relatively quick and simple, if a bit messy if like me you tend to get glue everywhere, and as there is no frame it allows the embroidery to stand on its own and speak for itself. (Stand on its own metaphorically, of course; if you want it to stand up in the literal sense as well you’d have to glue some sort of prop to the back.)

Talking of rustic-looking projects, last Monday I had to go back to the hospital to have my eyes checked – good news fortunately, no retinal tears and just the advice to monitor but not worry – and although I had been assured that with an 8.30am appointment I’d be “in and out” I felt it might be a good idea to bring something to occupy me. As they were going to put those drops into my eyes that blur your vision a book or magazine wasn’t going to be much good. So I went for some embroidery.

Yes, yes, I know – bear with me . Reading very close up without my glasses is not really something I can do comfortably for any length of time, but I have often done close-up embroidery unbespectacled. And even with drops that should be possible. Nothing too precise, of course. But I was reminded of that hymn I quoted last time, and could see a project emerging; “Let there be” in light silk, and “LIGHT” in gold ribbon couched over the top of the words “chaos” and “darkness” in black silk, on a heavy denim background. It felt rather apt to be stitching black chaos and darkness while waiting to hear the verdict on my eyes, and by their very nature it wouldn’t matter if these words looked a bit rough! As it happens the wait wasn’t quite as long as I had feared (I was seen in a little over an hour), and the blurring did get too bad after a while to stitch, but I managed “chaos” plus the “ne” of darkness. And they didn’t come out too ragged after all.

I don’t know when I’m going to finish this – I’m not even sure if I will finish it. But it has served its purpose: while I was anxious it reminded me of the One who made the light, who made my eyes, and who holds me in His hands whatever happens.