What Are You Stitching?

Lorraine Lafrance

‘I continue to stitch every day; nothing relaxes me like cross stitching. Here are three pieces I stitched as gifts for friends this year.’

1. Ikabena – for an Ikabena artist friend as a housewarming gift.

2. Black cat and green leaves for a young friend as a housewarming gift when he moved to his first apartment.

3. Calligraphy ’Sérénité’ (Serenity) for friends as a thank you for hosting my husband and I during a visit to Quebec City.

With winter approaching for the next four months at least, I will certainly find more time to continue stitching!’

What a magnificent way to put your needlework skills to practical use Lorraine, we’re sure your friends were thrilled to receive such thoughtful gifts. You have a keen eye for aesthetic designs and your love for cross stitch is evident in your beautiful stitches.

Patty Park

‘Out of need, my two friends and I started a group for creative women a few years ago. Meeting monthly and called WAE+ (Wearable Art Expressions Plus), the focus is wearable art but we also play around with art cards and jewellery. These are a few photos of what we do:’

‘From Vicki: Using a double backed indigo dyed gauze fabric, I used a hand stitched free form design to quilt the fabric to the batting. The garment is lightweight, warm, and fully lined.’

‘Sandra is wearing her kantha ‘cozy’ top. Kantha is wildly popular here. The pattern is part of our member, Heidi Emmett’s, collection of patterns which flatter all figure types. It is cozy, easy and suitable for many fabrics and design elements.’

‘This is my interpretation of an ‘Alabama Chanin’ technique with two dyed knit fabrics, reverse appliqué and lots of stitches.’

‘Velda Newman is teaching a class for our group in January. Velda’s work speaks for itself. Just know, she is modest, unassuming and so talented. You can find more of her work HERE.’

‘Lastly, art cards. So many possibilities with collections from nature, fabrics stabilized with Terial Magic, (fantastic invention from member, Terry McFeely) and any found textures. These cards are never tossed.

This does not even begin to describe who we are and what we do. I hope you enjoy a look at another side of needlework with talents from all walks of life.’

Patty, thank you for sharing all the wonderful endeavours of your WAE+ group. Quite the talented bunch you all are! We can tell a lot of thoughtful hours went into creating all of the wearable clothing, which has produced wonderfully stylish and comfortable looking garments indeed! It is lovely seeing stitchers coming together to share a common love of needlework.

Pat Mitchell

‘I started the Inspirations project Vivace by Di Kirchner but realised fairly quickly that my colour choices were not working out well. Instead of ploughing on – I knew I would never be happy with it – I cut out the two flowers that I liked and created ornaments.’

‘These I love! And I get to start afresh with Vivace!’

This was an ingenious way to repurpose your stitches into something you love, Pat. Looks like you will get two projects out of one design!

Have you finished a cross stitch piece? Are you a part of a stitching group? Or have you repurposed your stitches when a project wasn’t looking how you wanted?

Whatever you are stitching, we’d love to see it! Email photos of what you’ve created with needle and thread along with a few details about your stitching journey to news@inspirationsstudios.com