Home Stitching on the Weekend & a Kit

I had planned on an early article for you this morning, but Monday decided to act up a bit, as Monday is wont to do.

So welcome to Late Monday at Needle ‘n Thread!

Last week, I mentioned this counted piece that I’ve been doing at home and promised to share some more of it, when it actually started to look like itself. So here’s an update following the wet weekend. We also carry these kits in the shop.

The project is “Acadian Peony” by Avlea Folk Embroidery, and you can find the kit available here in the shop – along with other similar kits – if you want to stitch it. (If they are out of stock, they will be restocked soon.

This is the same company that makes these very pretty needle minders that I carry.

I haven’t gotten Super Far on the project, but any progress is progress, says I.

I’m enjoying it. It worked out well this weekend, with the good rainy weather all day Saturday. I used it as my housework, laundry, and cooking carrot. Once I got chores done, dad situated, and a good book cued up on Audible, I enjoyed a couple hours of stitching by the window as the rain splattered about outside.

My whole working kit for this is fairly minimal – there’s the ground fabric; thread (which I pre-cut and put on thread-drops held together by a needle tube on a ring); a chart; scissors; a pencil; and a little collection of pins.

As I stuck the pins into this little heart on Saturday, I chuckled. That was about the extent of my nod to Valentine’s Day!

Because the project has two borders that run the length and width of the design, I used the pins to mark where the borders end. That way, I don’t have to count while I’m stitching. I have one “concentrated counting moment,” put the pins in, and just stitch to the pins. Everything else in the design can be counted from those two borders, so it really requires very little concentration.

As I mentioned before, my “home projects” (there aren’t too many of them – I do most stitching at the studio) have to be easily transportable, easily packed up, easy to see – essentially, they must be no-fuss projects. The less equipment required, the better!

When I mentioned this in my earlier post, I got a lot of feedback and a lot of questions about why I don’t have a stitching station at home, some advice on having duplicate equipment – lamps, magnifiers, stands, etc. – at home, so that I don’t have to transport equipment, and so forth.

Oh my friends! I’m not sure how to make it clearer that my house is small. I don’t have space for a needlework stand in my living room, or a magnifier, or even room for projects to stay out. The room is about 11 by 12 feet. That’s all the “living space” in the entire house. There is no other living room or den. Small House. And because it’s a small house, I have to be pretty choosy about what takes up space. I have the studio (my place of work) where I can spread out stitching stuff. I’m very grateful for what I have, and it doesn’t bother me to keep the Big Stitching Stuff at the studio. In fact, in the scheme of things, it just Makes Sense.

Besides, look!! What could be more satisfying than a project that reduces so tidily into a small pouch?

When I need to stitch, I can take it out, and when I’m finished, it packs right up into minimal space.

Soooo Satisfying.

So that was my weekend time spent with needle and thread. It was good! And now, here at work, I can get down to business with Big Stuff!

I hope your week is off to a tidy start! Hard to believe we’re over halfway through February!