Stitch Inspiration

Push Stitchery is my latest addition to my personal embroidery 'library'. It's different than other embroidery books; you will find no stitches explained in this book,  reading Push Stitchery is more like visiting a really awesome Embroidery Exhibition. It features the work of 30 Stitch artists (selected by Jamie Chalmers aka Mr. XStitch) from across the globe (well to be honest more from the 'Western' part of the globe) whose work is 'pushing' boundaries rather than safely staying within them. Some artists distinguish themselves by using extraordinary techniques, sometimes on usual surfaces. Others have an unique (sometimes unsettling) theme in their work. A couple of artists I have 'followed' and admired the past few years are featured, like Porterness and Penny Nickels. Others, Aya Kakeda and Charlene Mullen for example, were new to me but I'm glad I found them through this book! I wish I could show examples from the book but I can't due to copyright issues. If you check out the links you can get some idea of some of the content though. :) 

And while I am by no means pushing any stitchy boundaries (except maybe my own) I'm rather pleased with how my cute tattoo/sewing inspired monkey is turning out! Only a few details to add and then I will send it off to Katy.  I stitched the lettering three times (and unpicked it twice) and I found out that the stem stitch really is an excellent choice for stitching lettering similar to the one I used.

In other news: believe it or not but I still haven't found a winner for my Accuquilt Giveaway! So possibly there will be another draw later this week...