Stitching Sunday: Order from chaos

In line with the sunshine this morning, promising Spring and its requisite cleaning, I want to start reorganising my embroidery supplies. I picked up a handy tool to make sense of the plastic bag(s) of embroidery floss...

If I wind a few a day, I could have them all sorted and ready to file away in this handy-dandy gift from my mother:

My mother is the most organised, tidiest person I’ve ever known, and the sight of my craft supplies (or craft piles) must make her cringe. She has given me storage gifts for yarn, fabric and threads. I aspire to get it all sorted this year...

The top will hold hoops and fabric, the drawers keep floss, scissors and needles tidy. And its portable, so I can take it to my craft groups...

I also have this lovely vintage sewing box, bought from a friend who refinishes old and tattered furniture

It has the original blue velvet lining in the top, and a small drawer for organising bits and bobbins

Another embroidery tool that keeps me organised is my magnetic needle keeper. I have a few at the moment, they beg to become a collection!

I have shared my love of magnets before, in this post, written in the first two weeks of my blog. These invaluable little pretties are perfect for anyone who can’t ever seem to be able to sit for more than five minutes without someone somewhere in the house calling out for something! Rather than stabbing the fabric repeatedly or just losing the needle in the back of the sofa, I park it on the magnet, sort out whatever minor crisis only I can solve, then pick up the needle and carry on with my work.

My little magnetic frog!

I found these lovely magnets here.

Now that we’re into February, I can report on the &Stitches Finish-Along. No, Sam-I-Am isn’t finished (ha! Don’t be silly!), but hey-ho, I’ve made more progress with him this month than I have all autumn and winter!

The ham is just about complete. I will add more black stitches today, but I wanted to show you the flow of the green stitches, following on from last week’s post.

I used long and short stitch embroidery, curving very gradually as I stitched. Here’s a size reference:

I couldn’t have done this without this super-geeky piece of kit:

This is a magnifier that I wear around my neck, so I have hands free to stitch. It comes complete with a tiny light if I need extra illumination to my thread. I am so rock-n-roll crazy it frightens me.

I wonder if I could tart up this magnifier, make it less, well, old-lady-ish? I mean really, I love embroidery, I love the cute magnets and gorgeous array of floss, so why can’t there be some Cath Kidston-inspired magnifiers and lamps?

Before I leave you to your day, I want to share some lovely discoveries in my garden this morning...

Amidst the rubble...

Despite the winter storms throwing all and sundry onto the back border of my garden (a thousand twiggy branches from my birch tree, piles of leaves, buckets of rain, and the odd bit of plastic bag blown away from a rubbish bin), the first few blooms change are making their tentative appearances.

The mighty-yet-dainty snowdrop, which no doubt would find a way to pop up through a glacier if challenged. I love these flowers, so delicate yet determined to flourish – never to be thwarted by the ongoing grey of January (note to self: take a cue from the humble snowdrop next year post-Christmas!). They pop up just when you need to be reminded that change will come!

Hiding behind the foliage

I was so delighted to see the hellebore blossoms opening this morning. Only last week I thought they had succumbed to the Christmas soaking, but by the end of the week, fat buds were sneaking out from beneath the leaves.

I love how these blossoms perch bashfully on their stems, heads down, revealing the beautiful rosy streaks on the back of the petals.

Eenie, meanie, minie, mo – do I work on my sewing projects now, or go outside and do some chilly gardening? I think I’ll take advantage of this gorgeous golden orb in the sky...

Chrissie x