Last year’s stitching included a purple “box” I completed as an entry into a competition held in memory of a member of our branch of EG. As this member was the person who encouraged me to join the branch, I decided to stitch a piece of work that would show many of the techniques that I had been introduced to through workshops run by the branch.
The outside of the box was four panels of crewelwork with a ribbon embroidery lid. Most of the designs were my own but the crewelwork images were parts of designs from some of my books which I resized and altered the colours and some of the stitches – as I was running out of time – lunch breaks at work were not long enough!!
When the lid was removed the box opened up to reveal four labelled needle cases which held each of the style of needle I had used and a second box. The sides of this inner box were different styles of canvaswork – beading, thread couching and bargello. The final side was one of the blocks from my Southwark design.
The lid to this inner box was decorated with goldwork.
When this second lid was removed the box opened up again to reveal a place for storing stitching tools and a cross stitched scissor case. I was lucky enough to find purple handled scissors and a purple seam-ripper, tape measure and thimble to go into this inner area. The construction of the box was definitely a challenge – it was eventually finished 2 hours before the meeting started!! If I do this again I need to think and research more carefully the construction details before doing the stitching or find a workshop!!
PS. I came second – so I was very pleased with my first competition entry.
