Monday was a long weekend in Canada and I happily spent most of the afternoon doing some slow stitching with my daughter. She was embroidering and listening to video essays while I was working on my Traveller's Blanket and listening in on the programs. It was so peaceful and pleasant. I wish that I could spend all of my afternoons like that😊
Traveller's Blanket
So what it a Traveller's Blanket? If you google it, you will find links to Dejanne Cevaal's work. Dejanne has made a number of Traveller's Blankets - blankets that might have been made by travellers to depict what they had seen during their travels. I follow Dejanne on Instagram and saw that she was offering an online course. Since I've really enjoyed meditation stitching, I thought that this would be a great way to display them.
I'm using a very fine piece of cotton that I dyed a couple of years ago. I love the colours and I'm sure that it will make a great background to my small meditation stitched blocks.
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| My dyed background piece (39" x 25") |
The idea is then to attach pieces of fabric to the background and to embroider them on and around them.
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First block stitched down with a blanket stitch
and then adding seed stitches |
I finished the first block and then attached the second block last night. I also pinned an embroidered hexie that will be stitched down next.
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| Two blocks stitched down and the hexie pinned |
For the online course, so far Dejanne has sent us a couple of PDF lessons and we are sharing on a private Facebook group. It's a lovely group of ladies from around the world.
Here are some of my favourite meditation stitching.
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| Impressions of Dried Flowers |
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| Star Light |
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| Web in the Flower of Life |
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| Orange, Pink & a feather |
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| Pretty Moon & Stars; Angles; Green & Blue with Bark; and Shining Rose |
Here are some of the hexies that I embroidered. The spring bulbs have now gone but they were lovely a few weeks ago.
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| Embroidered hexies in the spring garden |
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| Close-up of embroidered hexies |
What I learned
- In the first meditation stitched block that I attached, I ran out of the pink embroidery floss that I was using for the outside chain stitch. As I was posting my pictures on Facebook, I realised that I could leave the chain stitch open and have a few seed stitches spilling out of the open frame.
- I'm not a big Facebook fan but this is a lovely small group so things can easily be found.
- It's really fun to see other participants' work. The fabrics that are being attached to the blankets tell a story. Either they were acquired while travelling , hand-dyed, etc.
- I have quite a few meditation stitched pieces done but will be making more to add to the blanket.
- I want to stitch a border around each block. It's fun that I can add more stitching to the borders later.
- I'm looking forward to seeing how my hexies look when interspersed around the blocks.
Related links
Linking parties
I will be linking this post to many fun linky parties. Let's see what's happening out there!
Oh Scrap!,
15 Minutes to Stitch 2020,
Monday Making,
Colour & Inspiration Tuesday,
Free Motion Mavericks,
Off the Wall Friday,
Foto Fun Friday,
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?,
Peacock Party,
Slow Sunday Stitching,
Midweek Makers,
Needle & Thread Thursday,
Put Your Foot Down,
