If At First ...

Okay so you’ve probably heard the saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. So I think that’s where I’m at with blogging. I really want to blog on a regular basis not just occasionally, but I seem to be trying and trying. So here we go again!

Wow over two months have gone by since I last posted! And now it’s almost Christmas is past! Well I have been busy. Still unpacking and hunting for things. When will I learn to label my boxes better? Knowing me probably never! Ha!

I’ve decided to add my Works In Progress (WIP’s) to the blog so you can see what I’m working on and what lies behind a finished project. 

Oh speaking of finished projects my plans for 52 old unfinished ones went astray but I did manage to do the butterflies on a dish towel. I went back to it because I needed some dish towels. 

                                                    This became a warm up exercise for my fingers before working on other projects. Plus I tested out something my art instructor told me a long time ago. “A broken line is more interesting than a solid one.” The butterfly on the left is solid stitching and the one on the right has some broken lines. Do you find it more interesting? I’m not sure if it holds true for embroidery.

Another side benefit of doing these butterflies is while working on them I made a decision for another project. I had done the shashiko embroidery in a class taught by the kit designer Sylvia Pippin in Hawaii. The kit called for appliqué butterflies using some hand marbled fabric supplied in the kit. I started working on them but was not thrilled with the fabric colors so then I tried using some of my own hand marbled fabrics (I have a lot of these from classes I taught). They weren’t suiting me either so I stopped working on the project.

I contemplated doing them as embroidery but couldn’t decide. Then I started working on the dishtowel, the more I worked on it the stronger I felt to do embroidered butterflies on the shashiko piece. Now I just need to decide whether to make them fantasy ones or closer to true colors! Follow me and see what transpires!

I’m trying to stitch 1 to 2 hours every morning before my day gets busy. I also am now watching my grandson four days a week from 8 to 5 so I may need to find another time slot. But he’s worth it! Oh the pleasures of being a Tutu (grandmother)! Here he is wearing a hat made by Tutu Rose (that’s me of course!).

Happy stitching!