One side effect of designing (and I’m not altogether sure yet whether it’s a perk or a downside) is that practically any purchase of stash can be excused by being “for a new design”, or “for inspiration”. I’m sure stash manages to multiply by using us poor embroiderers as their hosts, although on the whole I think the relationship is symbiotic rather than parasitic . And of course if we weren’t such accommodating hosts, many threads would not survive; even with our concerted efforts, over the past decade we have lost Pearsall’s Filoselle and Filofloss, Eterna silk, Vicky Clayton’s Hand-Dyed Fibers and Carrie’s Creations, to name but a few. But fortunately Caron is still going strong, and I have helped ensure its survival for a bit longer by ordering this lovely lot of Soie Cristale.

I spent a few very pleasant evenings winding them all on bobbins and arranging them in a thread box. Don’t they make a pretty sight?

You may remember that recently I did my bit to keep Rainbow Gallery going as well; partly stocking up on silks for the Quatrefoil kits, but also to fill in some colour gaps in my collection. Some of those silks I used last week in a little experiment: one of the small Hope rainbows in pastels.

I’ve stitched that size rainbow several times now, but usually in much brighter shades; sometimes in standard DMC perles, sometimes (which I like even better) using Caron’s overdyed Watercolour threads.

The first mini rainbows were done on light blue fabric (above right), but once I tried them on the denim-coloured fabric there was no turning back – the contrast with the thread colours, whether pastel or bright, is just so much more attractive. Another change is in the cloud: as you can see the fluffy frill is stitched in different threads. On the earlier mini rainbows (like the one on light blue fabric) it is worked in Rainbow Gallery Wisper, which is quite thin; I thought it would work better than the much chunkier Angora used in the larger Hope designs. But having used Angora on the smaller rainbows a few times (for example in the pastel version and the birthday card above) I found I liked the effect much better, and it is also a little easier to use, so better for my next plan: rainbow kits!

I have yet to decide on all the particulars, but I couldn’t resist supporting Rainbow Gallery and Caron a bit more by stocking up on Angora and Watercolours…

As I’m working out materials and writing instructions, all sorts of ideas are swirling in my head: should the pastel silk one become a kit too? And should the kit perhaps come with a display hoop (red for the bright version, wood grain effect for the pastel one)? Let me know what you think!