Wishes for 2022

After the holidays, it was good to start 2022 calmly and quietly. I did a little bit of free motion quilting (FMQ) which I will show you at the end of this post. Today I want to share with you a very fun project - another squirrel!

Stitching on a clean-up cloth

The first workshop of the year at TextileArtists.org was presented by Vanessa Marr. It's called Domestic Story Cloths. Vanessa stitches stories of women and domestic work on dusters. I was intrigued by the workshop and took a couple of days to think about the possibilities. 

please let me play - a work in progress

I knew that I didn't want to stitch on a duster since I really, really dislike housework. Finally in the laundry room where I also do my dyeing, I found a cloth that was perfect. It was a rag that had been used to clean but it was so much more! It had splashes of dye and also needed mending. It was perfect! 😊

I started by taking a picture of my hand holding a needle. I put the image on my laptop screen and then drew it out on tracing paper. Finally I used my light box to transfer the image onto the cloth. 

Picture of my hand stitching used in the piece

I used a wonderful shade of fuchsia perle cotton to embroider the hand with a stem stitch. At this point I wasn't sure what else would be on there except for some boro and sashiko. I learned two kinds of sashiko - the hitomezashi and the moyouzashi and used one of each on this piece.

Ready to add the sashiko

Using a hitomezashi stitch - Offset crosses

Here is the second sashiko, which actually is a moyouzashi stitch. It's a diamond variation. The blue blends into the fabric but it's very pretty. You can see the back of the piece from which I stitched.

The back where you see the stitching grids

This is a moyouzashi stitch -
diamond variation

Adding lovely colour

Of course I had to add a few other fun stitches and techniques on here 😊. 

The first thing I did was add a pretty piece of hand-dyed linen and stitched on it.

In the image below, I cut out two circles and embroidered the inside one. To show that a rag can be precious too, I added a circle of gold thread that I had purchased for Hannah Newton's goldwork workshop. 

Adding gold thread

Adding words to tell the story

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say on the cloth...and then it hit me.... a plea to just let me play, which is really what I've been wanting to do since I was a kid. As you know, there is a count down....it's now at less than 10 months!😎

I practiced writing the words a few times and then very carefully used a frixion pen to write it on the cloth. I used my favourite hand-dyed thread to stitch it.

Adding the words

To emphasize the word, I drew the letters, cut out the templates, added Heat and Bond to the back of the fabric, cut them out and then ironed the letters on. I've only gotten the "L" stitched so far.

Stitching the word - not quite finished.

I'm really looking forward to finishing this piece. Since I'm still doing the #100dayschallenge on Instagram, I figure that I can get it finished by the end of the month.

Update on Glimpses of Joy

Since my machine is back, I did a little bit of FMQ on my Glimpses of Joy piece. I love the extra FMQ that I did. As you can see, I'll be adding the word JOY (not sure with what fabric yet). I also finally know what to do with the rest of the piece. Again, because of my posting on #100daychallenge on Instagram, I hope to have this one done within the next few weeks.

Glimpses of Joy - almost there!

What I learned

• As you may have figured out in my post, my wishes for 2022 are calm, joy and play!
• It was different stitching right onto the fabric of the rag. It's sort of flimsy yet it bounces back. 
• I was looking for the link to the post on the goldwork workshop that I did with Hannah Newton but it seems that I never wrote it, so I'll try to add that soon.
• I'm sure that I'll be adding more stitches on the "please let me play" piece, so I'll post it when it's done. I'm thinking of attaching it to a canvas frame - we'll see how that goes.
• I'm really liking the Glimpses of Joy piece. Funny how I like it, then don't (usually because I don't know what to add to it) and then I like it again once I have a vision. It's a good thing that there is no deadline for any of these.
• I'm still posting on Instagram - if you're curious you can see the images on the left side of my blog.

Related links

• Vanessa Marr - website and Instagram
• Vanessa Marr: From conception to creation
• Vanessa Marr: The Mighty Duster
• Glimpses of Joy post:
• Trying for something different and Free Motion Mavericks, October 28, 2021
• Sashiko related posts:
• Week 5 of #AtoZchallenge2021Quilt (Art), May 03, 2021 see Z is for Zigzag
• Catching up on posting projects, February 08, 2021 see Quilted Stitcher's Journal with sashiko samples
• Sashiko stitching and visible mending, December 06, 2020

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on out there in quilting land 😊 I'm linking up with Muv on Free Motion Mavericks. There are still a couple of days left to link up your posts! Patchwork & Appliqué, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap! Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, Midweek Maker, Put your foot down, Off the Wall Friday, Peacock Party, Oh Scrap!,