Serinde's 2020 Stitching Adventures 7 December

[Wise Owl]

Great idea Serinde, nice to have done something to remember how you were feeling during this time.
And yes roll on 2021 so we we leave this weird and strange year behind us lol

[Serinde]

This is will form part of a larger piece being made by my branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. We can't meet up in person and not everyone has an internet connection (our members are largely of a certain age, you see), so Zoom really isn't possible, either, at the moment. So, everyone has been asked to send in a 5" x 5" piece, just about any technique, to characterise the way they have felt during lockdown.

I thoroughly recommend being involved with these kinds of groups. I've learned such a lot, and here in the UK at least, they don't require you to be of a professional standard beforehand -- although there are some incredibly creative and technically expert members!

[Wise Owl]

That sounds really good Serinde. I would love to be part of a group, I haven’t met anyone in person who does any needlework.
I know there’s a lot of tips and tricks I could learn from more experienced people and it would be easier one day in person. I’m hoping next year is a little more normal and maybe I could go to a class

How would I go about looking for a group to join?

[Serinde]

Go online to, for example, and visit the Embroiderers' Guild website to see if there is a branch near you. They are pretty thin on the ground in Scotland, but England and Wales are better, I believe. Australia, New Zealand and the US also have equivalent groups. South Africa might too. Embroiderers' Guild in the UK also now have an online "branch", called Thread-It, which is new and useful for those without a branch locally. EG also run courses, as do (of course) the Royal School of Needlework, whose satellite operations might be somewhere near you, too. They run beginners' courses in all their techniques. It's astonishing what's out there, really.

[Wise Owl]

Oh that’s such a nice idea! I’ll have a look at this. Eventually it would be nice to one of the classes in my local area.

[Serinde]

Here is Elizabeth Almond's Sublime Stitches. I've put it away for (rather late!) Christmas stitching. I'm perhaps two-thirds of the way through it.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Such a lot of lovely motifs - must be fun to stitch as there's always something different.

[Serinde]

All the different motifs are good, and there's a lot more colour here than you might think. Elizabeth Almond also uses a lot of pulled motifs, so I'm learning a bit of pulled work at the same time. This was originally a freebie, and I suspect that she used feedback from stitchers to iron our problems and find errors -- fair enough! Some parts are really difficult to count, and I've gone astray several times... but it's a sampler, so I'm not concerned particularly.

[Squirrel]

WOW AND WOW again. That is awesome. You are amazing Serinde.

[imogenX]

Wow that is a great piece! So many different stitches, and I love all the little pops of color It looks perfect!

[rcperryls]

I love this one. You are doing an absolutely beautiful job!!!

Carole

[Wise Owl]

Oh this is a nice showcase of stitches. I love it

[fccs]

That is just beautiful! I bet it’s fun, too.

[Garnet]

This is lovely. I can see why it's called Sublime Stitches.

Very well done, it's beautiful.