Starting and finishing

Moaning Mona, as she is becoming known, is nearly finished. She should have been handed in at our meeting last Saturday, but she's nearly there.

This meeting involved several very enjoyable little workshops being run by members of Sussex Stitchers, embracing the sharing skills and knowledge side of belonging to the Embroiderers' Guild. We have also been running a monthly stitching group (called Fly Stitchers) for some newer members to give them more confidence in their (already very good) stitching. One of the questions we are often asked is about starting and finishing threads.

There are a couple of schools of thought on this. One of the most common methods is the "away knot", where the end of the thread is knotted and brought down into the fabric far enough away from your starting point that you can take it through to the back of the work and weave in when you have finished. This is a really good method if you are working on small motifs and designs, or using a stitch which isn't intended to cover the fabric.

In the case of Mona, however, the area of her hair is densely stitched with a mixture of stem and outline stitch (of which more in a bit). This being the case, I've used the method recommended by RSN teachers, which is to run the thread down on the line you will be covering with stitching, then bring it back up and take a small backstitch to anchor it before starting the stitching proper. When you get to the end of the thread, you do a similar thing in reverse.

So here you can see various "freckles" in the unstitched area of her hair, where I have got to the end of a thread and "parked" by making a small securing stitch, bringing the end of the thread to the surface again and snipping it close to the linen. It will stay there until it is covered by subsequent stitching. (The bottom edge is much squarer than it appears here!)

You can also park thread temporarily, as below, where in the foreground and further up you can see threads ready to be used for the next bit of stitching. I have started stitching upwards from the area of organza where her hair meets her face, rather than working from the top down and risking a bulge in the layers of organza.

Here, below, you can see where I have started a strand of darker brown, the loose end is middle right, and if you look closely you can see the tiny anchoring stitch just before the needle goes down into the fabric, having come up where I am starting this colour. On the left are two more needles with different blends of brown as I am mixing colour both in the needle and as I move across the hair from left to right.

The other thing I am doing is mixing stem and outline stitch so that there is more texture in the hair, rather than having the twist of the stitches all one way. If you're not sure of the difference, the source of all good stitchy information Mary Corbet will tell you here.

Now for the other bit of finishing - i.e. finishing Moaning Mona

Having seen lots of our other stitchers' contributions, I think she's going to look rather wonderful when she's done. I'll be sure to take a pic to show you.

Dye and stitch and sometimes both

So a little free time focus and some fun with the dyepot. These below a set of fabrics variously manipulated in shibori fashion, stitched, pleated, folded, bound, crumpled.

Dyed with synthetic indigo, flushed through with a wash of petrol green towards the end - I enjoy playing with the parameters of what and when. The colours not quite right here, but you get the idea.

Then in a plastic tray, this scrumptious srcumpledness. Again, shibori stitched, dyed bright yellow a few days ago, then extra colour flooded in as a second process

And here it is unwrapped and blended together with three other bits of cloth from those long ago sheets. Some of my experiments in my first year or two with Christine top and third, second and fourth dyed very recently to complement. I intend spreading them out a bit onto a backcloth so each can have its own voice, but still be part of a whole

And the cities begin to grow in Mesopotamia - 

Assur, capital of the Assyrian Empire the latest to manifest as we flow down the Tigris, Dur Sharrukin, Nineveh and Nimrud nestled in the confluence of the Greater Zab and the Tigris