Slowly stitching some little Zen bags ...

I love the creative past time of hand stitching. I come from a long line of women who were dab hands at stitching. My mother, grandmother & great grandmother could knit, crochet, & sew clothes, curtains, hand furnishings, seat covers - just about anything. I learnt to sew on my grandmothers treadle singer machine & was absolutely delighted to inherit my great aunts hand singer machine.  It is that connection to making things. My embroidery is never as neat as my mothers was but I enjoy it never the less. My Mother did not have to look up stitches as I have to do, she just seemed to know how to do a wide range of them. I have favourite stitches - blanket, seed, running, back, satin, lazy daisy, french knots etc

Some of my threads I popped on the table - I like to limit my choices or I spend way too much time deciding instead of sewing. I love sashiko needles for hand stitching - their eye is the same size as the needle so they glide through the fabric better. I needed my thread wax because some of the threads kept unravelling & knotting - dragging it through the wax makes it glide through the fabric when stitching so it is definitely recommended. The thicker cords for the drawstring were threaded with the large tapestry needle. Does anyone else have a lot of needles with different colours when sewing? 

I always join the Zen creative retreats which are run several times a year. They are a week of 4-5 daily workshops with various creative things, many sewing based activities. This past one at the end of September came as I was preparing to go away so I made notes,  drawings & am slowly returning to the activities now.  I was drawn to making these little hand stitched pouches. The size is entirely up to you ...

I love using various fabric in a new & interesting way. This is then enhanced with free hand stitching, nothing prescribed, it is just using your intuition as you go along.  

I recently bought this gorgeous piece of fabric in a charity shop because of the colours that are so vibrant. I used bits of this on a plain white background - initially tracing a few paisley shapes on the fabric. The composition has a rather gentle look with the pale colours. The paisley shape does not show up too well but I do like the leaf shapes. I oversewed with one colour only to keep that gentle look. 

I was rather pleased with my effort so did a second one - same fabrics on a different white background & it turned out completely different. This time I stitched the various components down with a variety of stitches. I opened up the one shape in to a spiral & finished it off with my favourite blanket stitch edges. I am rather pleased with it - a little pouch for treasures .... 

I hope I have inspired others to put needle & thread to fabrics in a unique way. Please share your projects. Thanks for your company, you are always welcome here, 

Dee 🧵🪡