I have seen this couching with blanket stitch on Judy's Journal, a blog I read. She has made one of these that is three years long and now a second that will only cover one year. 365 skeins of thread. She couches any scrap fabric she has--and she must have quite a bit--sewing until the one skein of floss is used up. It's a daily practice. Takes her roughly 40 minutes.
I searched her blog (under couching) and finally found some of the first posts regarding this daily sewing project. The materials listed were artist canvas, skeins of embroidery floss and surplus fabric. I went in search of these items. I had gotten some floss at Goodwill but I also had a few skeins in the workroom. It took awhile but I found some artist canvas. In very odd shapes. Hers are 15 by 27 inches. What the devil had I made using artist's canvas??? And I looked out in the garage for the bag of velvet scraps. Found them. I got started.
I mean--it's just couching fabric with the blanket stitch. I find I need to tie the thread off every four or five stitches to keep it from gathering up. Puckering the background. Hers are smooth and flat. I have to get my blanket stitch to loosen up.
What I have found--I am woefully out of practice with handwork. I feel clumsy and stupid. Sigh. But I will be patient and see if things are better tomorrow. And the next day. I'm not "making" anything. I am just using up a skein of floss each day till I reach the end of the canvas. I should be much better at this by then.
It's always interesting to find that something you thought was going to be "too easy" turns out to be a struggle. It was that way with the retail job. It was a real struggle to learn all the cash register stuff. But it felt good when I "got it". Finally. This will be the same.
I saw my 1st grade report cards. It took me forever to figure out reading. Look, See Joanne Read.
Fascinating. You're so insightful about this project. I must track down the original project and learn more. I think it looks really interesting. Velvet is luscious to begin with of course. This idea of something that you expected to be easy but turns out to be hard is big. It's more than "well, that took longer than it should have." But I expect you gain more from it in the end. Keep stitching.
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