You may remember (from the long Saga of Isobel’s Door Hanger) that we visited my husband’s parents a little over a month ago. My mother-in-law would be at her monthly embroidery class when we arrived, and I said wouldn’t it be interesting to see what they were all doing there, and promptly got invited to drop in. We’d be arriving about half an hour before they finished, so just enough time to have a look without disrupting the entire class!
There was some gorgeous stitching there – a beautiful photo album cover using various badges which all had a family significance, and a lovely doorway surrounded by flowers, which was all done in shades of cream and peach, and contained at least half a million French knots. I stood in awe of all this skill and creativity.
And then I saw a familiar sight; surely that was the latest Stitch magazine, and that lady was stitching my Tulips! I can’t tell you what an odd feeling it was to see someone stitching one of my designs – to see that familiar shape in someone else’s hoop, the stitches formed by someone else’s needle. It may just show me up for the rookie designer I am, but I found it quite exciting!
It also gave me an opportunity to be useful. You may remember seeing a notice on Mabel’s Fancies saying that unfortunately a stitch diagram had been left out of the Stitch article, and that people could contact me for the missing part should it cause them problems. Being on the spot meant I could show Karen the stitch, rather than emailing her the diagram. I got out my stitching folder and borrowed a few of her beads, and set about speed-stitching four Kloster blocks so that we could get to the problem, which was the beaded square filet.
Very few stitchers can resist having a look at a new stitch – who knows, you might be able to use it yourself some time! And so the afternoon ended with an impromptu mini group tutorial. You have no idea how tangly threads become when four people are watching your every stitch; and don’t even mention the cutting!
Karen has since finished Tulips, and has very kindly sent me a picture of her beautifully stitched and mounted piece, which you can see in the Gallery.