The purely practical purpose of patchwork

You know how old things can sometimes be new to you? Like when you discover a band that’s been around for ages and there’s an entire back catalogue of albums to gorge on. Or come across a book that was published ages ago and you can’t believe you haven’t read it yet, because it’s by an author that you know well.

A Painted House by John Grisham (2001) is one of my new old books. It’s different to any of his other novels that I’ve read. It follows a seven-year-old boy through the cotton picking season in rural Arkansas towards the end of 1952. And I’m guessing his mother would have been considered somewhat of a liberal back then, for spending days cleaning the hayloft above the barn and filling it with pillows and quilts to make it comfortable for the Mexican migrant labourers who would live there for the duration of the picking season.

This particular scene reminded me of how integral quilts were to the American way of life in those days. The women who made them were not precious about their quilts. They were functional, everyday items made from whatever was available for the sole purpose of providing warmth and comfort. I’m sure some were more elaborately pieced or stitched than others – the creative spirit lives in us all in varying degrees – but ultimately they had a purely practical purpose.

And when you think of how warm and cozy and at home it feels to be wrapped in a quilt, suddenly it doesn’t make much sense to hang them on walls or keep them ‘safely’ packed away. They’re meant to be snuggled under and picnicked on and used to build cocoons against the world. When last did you immerse yourself in a quilt, just to feel its goodness? I highly recommend it.

Christmas fear

Christmas has snuck up on me once again. I had grand visions of a house full of decorations this time round, but alas this has not come to pass. I confess that I haven't even gotten around to getting a dowel on which to hang our advent calendar.

I have this grand notion of handmade Christmas tree ornaments, temari with metallic threads, embroidered bunting and quilted stockings. I've sketched ideas and bought fabric, set aside threads in red and green, all but sat and down made the decorations.

As I began berating myself once again for being a Christmas slacker, I had a thought. Wouldn't it be better to make one or two more time-consuming and detailed decorations each year that will always remind me of that particular Christmas? Perhaps even stitch the year somewhere.

This is a great idea on so many levels. I let myself off the hook for this year (and every subsequent year). I can take my time and actually enjoy stitching the one or two a year that I choose to make. And I'll eventually have a substantial amount of quality decorations. Works for me.

Bloomin’ Marvellous : 3

Here goes. Number three. It's a little less is more, but I like the way it makes the yellow stand out:

www.kellyfletcher.co.uk

I’ve been a little scarce of late. And now I can tell everyone why. I’ve been setting up my website and online pattern store.

Yes, you can now buy my designs online. So if you like what you see and it makes your fingers itch to be stitching, feel free to make a purchase.

Patterns available include some old favourites:



… and some new designs:



You’ll find a mix of embroidery, appliqué, beading and quilting. And I’m already brimming with new design ideas that I’ve had to restrain myself from pursuing while getting kellyfletcher.co.uk up and running.

So watch this space...

Bloomin’ Marvellous : 2

This one’s good fun if you’re into learning new stitches. It’s a bit of a sampler. I learnt up and down blanket stitch while working on this bloom – and fell a bit in love with it...

Tagged...

Lesley of Tintock Tap tagged me with a Kreativ Blogger award a while ago… well, better late than never. Thanks, Lesley. And sorry to keep you waiting.


In keeping with the spirit of the tagged award, I have to share seven things about myself and then tag seven other bloggers. I’m on a bit of an embroidery bent at the moment, so here are seven related facts about me:

1) My mom got me started on embroidery, but I’m largely self-taught.
2) I’m easily bored, so go for smaller projects with lots of different stitches – probably why I enjoy creative and Jacobean embroidery.
3) The stitch I enjoy doing most is palestrina.
4) Bullions are my nemesis. It’s an ongoing war.
5) The last stitch I learnt was up and down blanket stitch.
6) I’ve done a goldwork course, but have only ever finished the piece we had to work on in the course. And I cut corners to get it done.
7) I’m right-handed, but thread needles left-handed.

So there you have it.

And I’m tagging seven blogs that I read as often as possible:

Anything goes. The go-to blog for all things design.
Knot Garden. Stunning objects, neatly stitched, and beautifully styled photographs.
UK lass in US. Fun project ideas, plus UK English to US English translations.
¼ of an inch. Regular Sunday Stash posts for ogling fabric.
Jen Renninger. Fantastic illustrations.
The Quilted Turtle. Insider info about living on an island with no cars, with quilting thrown in.
She wears shwe shwe. Although this blog hasn’t been updated recently, it’s a poignant reminder of home and beautifully illustrates the traditional use for shwe shwe – one of my favourite fabrics.

Bloomin’ Marvellous : 1

The weather’s turned, leaves are falling and winter is on its way – to the northern hemisphere at any rate. So I’ve decided to design another series of free embroidery patterns while stuck indoors for the next few months.

The theme is a bloomy one, although loosely interpreted, because the real blooms have faded and flowery designs are just fun to stitch. I’ve picked my fabric – white cotton and textured Irish linen – and a variety of muted, but light coloured six-stranded DMC threads and Mill Hill glass embroidery beads.


The design process will be quite different compared with the way I did the Jacobean Leaves, in that I’m going to post patterns as I design instead of finishing the entire project first. Two reasons for this: I don’t know what the finished article is yet, and it’ll be more spontaneous and creative this way.

It won’t be entirely random, though, as each design will fit neatly into a 4x4" square, or about 10x10cm. So the plan is to end up with a stack of embroidered squares to make up into… something. I’m going to stick to embroidering on white, because I have that piece of soft white cotton that needs embellishing, and I’ll decide where the linen comes into it once all the white blocks have been embroidered. As for how many blocks, well, that depends on how many ideas pop into my head. I’m aiming for somewhere between 12 and 24.

These are the DMC threads that I’ve chosen: 815, 816, 920, 3854, 727, 3078, 3857, 3858, 3859, 3722, 224, 407, 3860, 435, 434, 598, 931, 924, 3768, 503, 927, 3363, 3052, 3364, 522, 469, 772 and 938. But in the spontaneous spirit of this project, I may decide to add another one or two or not use some of these colours along the way. But this is the basic palette I’ll be using and I’ll put the DMC colour numbers on to each pattern in case you like the same shades.

So without further ado, here’s Bloomin’ Marvellous 1: