starting a new embroidery pattern

A few weeks ago a lovely stitcher asked if I would mind creating a pattern of a girl quilting in an armchair. The summer was definitely coming to an end and it seemed like the perfect autumn project so I got my sketchbook out.

I knew that I wanted a hexie quilt My own attempts at quilts have been either squares or strip quilts I have always wanted to make a hexie quilt but never quite managed to get around to it!. I didn’t know how difficult hexagons can be to draw! Eventually I sorted a hexagon template out and added it to the quilt and began to stitch.

I wanted a lot of patterns in this design so I have given her a floral shawl (after getting lost on pinterest looking at Russian shawls!). I stitched her shawl in muted grey purples and then her armchair in reds but then I came to the quilt and realized that I wanted a brighter quilt and that I needed more hexies inside the bigger hexies. So I’ve started again. This time I’m going to stitch the quilt first and work upwards. I might also swap her plant for a vase of flowers to add a bit of colour in the rest of the image. Sometimes things are much slower than I want them to be, stitching is a good way to learn some patience.

So now I have my new design for the quilt which I’m hoping will be much more fun to stitch, I will begin stitching this afternoon.

In between the stitching I have also created some feeling witchy kits. I love these kits as witchy is one of my favourite designs and I’m excited to say that she has been printed on organic cotton calico by Prinfab

The kit comes with an oval flexi hoop that’s also a frame for the finished design. It fits very tightly so you can just trim the extra fabric away at the end of stitching and hang it up.

These kits can be found in my Etsy shop

I have some beautiful new liberty fabric for my fairy with attitude kits, Loden, a lovely purple, not a colour I normally use a lot but I love this fabric. These kits will hopefully be ready by next week.

Finally, winter sea swimming news! We have given in and bought dry robes in order to get through the winter swimming. They are huuuuuge fleecy waterproof coat/ changing rooms for after that cold cold swim and they are so warm that I may be wearing mine while stitching in the winter instead of putting the heating on. The sea temperature is down to about 11 degrees now but it’s the cold when getting changed that’s always the hardest to deal with. But not any more… bring on winter

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