trying out a new stitch

Yesterday I decided it was time to try out a scary new stitch on the embroidery that I’ve been working on. It’s a stitch that’s been on my radar for quite some time, but I’d been too scared to try it. It involved cutting threads and then working very close to unfinished ends. That scared me!

I decided that the best way to prepare for it (and to procrastinate a little further, but productively!) was to work some counted tacking to lay out where the stitching was going to sit. This was such a worthwhile thing to do! It means that I can go along cutting these threads feeling confident that I’m not going to get to the end of the line of stitching and realise that I’m one thread out.

In the afternoon, after doing a whole lot of family stuff in the morning, I finally got around to actually starting the stitching proper.

I don’t know what I was scared about! It’s fine! You don’t really work that close to unfinished ends at all. With the help of a pin to keep thread ends out of the way, it works very well. Sure, it isn’t a beginner’s stitch, but then I’m not a beginner, and neither are many of the people who use my books. I feel quite confident that I’ll be able to successfully write instructions that will produce successful results for those who will stitch it from my book.

And, I love the look of it! I’m looking forward to doing more of it today. 🙂