Stitching the collage.

I  moved onto the collage  exercise in the starter pack  for the Stitchbook Collective organised by Helen Birmgham at Untangled Threads. Here is the link to the website.

We were given several pieces of fabric and some yellow/ green embroidery floss. I hoped to use some of all the fabric pieces and all the stitches we had been practising.

One of the fabrics pieces was scrim, a fabric I love, it reminds me of the sea, waves , froth and foam. One of the pieces looked like tiles and I wondered how on earth I could use this.

I thought a lot.

We went to Dorset for a few days, where I did a lot more thinking. And sitting on the rocks at Portland Bill I found my inspiration.

I am not normally given to sketching anything in public, but using  a small notebook I carry in my bag I did a quick doodle to see if my idea could work. I decided it had possibilities.

Back home I began .

Sky , sea and rocks.

Add a boat.

In the samples we made I had really loved the ripples, and so I added some wadding to create ripples as best I could.

The ripples weren’t as good as when  I stitched onto  calico. The boat was attached using blanket stitch , which we didn’t do in the black and white samples, but I felt was best in this instance. The sea is running stitch and diagonal stab stitch.

Then I added scrim for waves, I used  fly stitch to begin with to attach the scrim but it made it too flat, so then I used french knots, rice stitch and seed stitch.

Next I added the woven fabric for a net and used bullion knots for fish. I added yellow back stitch to define the boat better. Running stitch for the moon and seed stitch for stars.

How then to attach it to the page? I decided that I wanted this final bit to be part of the collage  too.

I used pale grey running stitch with the waves, and added the tiny bit of left over scrim to the corner. Stab stitch around the sky to show water splashes and extra yellow seed stitches to take the stars to the page.

So that is my collage. I would really welcome constructive comments please.

My next task was to attach the three samples to the front of the page. I wanted to be able to use all as reference for future work so needed to be able to turn back the pieces, which I can now do by turning them down.

All three here

Top sample turned down so you can see the next one

That turned down so I can see the final one.

I have some fabric left over. I didn’t use  the satin ttitch column, back stitch grids or back stitch loops. Can I make another collage I wonder?  I did do some back stitch on the boat.

I used extra floss which were DMC 318,415, 503,504,519,597, 310 and the yellow thread provided with the pack.

I have absolutely loved every minute of this starter pack, and if you fancy trying your hand at mark making, do check out Helen’s webpage.