Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Vehicles for blanket stitch

I find embroidery enticing but difficult, which doubtless feeds my supreme love for blanket stitch. I can do blanket stitch. And it's so. peaceful.

As a result I am always open to projects that can use a little blanket stitch in the finish. So while looking for stress relief last weekend I cut out some circles.

I used my rotary cutter and a bowl with a stainless steel rim for the job. It went really well and made me wonder why I hadn't used my rotary cutter before.

Seriously: last winter I became obsessed with putting together every possible tool for working with felted wool or needle felting fiber, and even after scoring the bigger pieces like that mat in some sale or other, I just kept sitting down with scissors to cut freehand. Rotary cutters are just very sharp and scary-looking.

In the event though, the cutter gave me much better edges for showing off future blanket stitchings, so I guess I can live with it.

This reminded me of another tool I bought in that particular frenzy and never used:

Must think about making a felted wool skirt with a pretty scalloped edge some time.

The circles are destined to be doubled up and used for tea trivets, or I guess pads for any hot bowl or pot that could damage another surface. I'll embellish them in some way since that will give me an excuse to cut out more felted wool with my scissors.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here are some rejects I started last year:

I didn't finish them in trivet form because the circles came out so bumpy. Perhaps they will be happier if I re-trim them with the rotary cutter? Or perhaps they will find themselves some other use.

Meanwhile, my basket of blanket-stitchable things is full again

and I am very happy.

No comments: