The other day, I was having One of Those Days. Do you ever have them?
I sat at my worktable, staring before me, not really sure what to tackle. And so, listlessly, without really thinking about what I was doing, I reached for my Stitch Fun lattice work sampler.
I picked up a pencil and a ruler.
And I started drawing lines all over the thing.
It’s ok to mark out lines for lattice work, as long as you’re very sure you can cover those lines. I really wasn’t thinking about that. And I wasn’t working according to any plan. And when I finally caught myself and realized I might be going a little overboard with the lines, this is where I was.
Hm.
At first, I thought “Oh golly, I’ve created a jolly mess.”
And then I thought, “Hey – this is Stitch Fun! I can do whatever I want.”
And my mood perked right up! I pulled out a needle and thread, and I started covering up the lines.
Embroidery is just the best Mood Perker-Upper!
The last time we played around with lattice stitches, we looked at battlement couching, a lovely lattice work filling stitch that creates a gradation of color and is just doggone fun.
This time, I probably should have picked up the sampler with the intention of working out one more lattice tutorial that I have on The List, but I was feeling a bit flippant and carefree, so I just stitched whatever popped into the Old Noggin.
And that’s really what’s fun about lattice work – it’s easy to get a varied look, just by switching out colors, changing the angle of the lines, changing the way they are couched, changing any kind of filling in between them. It’s so much fun. You hardly even have to stop and think when you’re stitching randomly like this!
Besides filling in latticed areas, I outlined a few shapes previous worked. The lattice filling in the red outlined shape is discussed here, and the filling in the blue outlined shape is a variation of Griffin Stitch, which started the whole Lattice Fiasco.
Some of the unfilled shapes received outlines – this empty shape in the background is worked in whipped chain stitch, which creates a nice ropey line.
And then I started filling in the background of the right side of the sampler. It’s just a simple diamond lattice in light green, with the intersections couched vertically in dark green.
If I wanted that background to be darker, I could go in and work some kind of filling inside the diamonds – anything from a simple straight stitch or cross stitch to a French knot.
Each step I took that day was completely random. And I needed some Randomness! It was fun and relaxing, and it warmed me up for some more “serious” embroidery.
But really, if you want your embroidery to remain pleasurable, I have this notion that you can’t really take it – any of it! – too seriously. If your embroidery becomes a serious, weighty endeavor, it can lose much of its appeal. That’s why I love playing around with stitches, just for the fun of it. It reminds me that embroidery is supposed to be delightful.
And embroidery is delightful!
Ah, me. I think I’m in love.
Do you ever do anything different, to lighten up your approach to embroidery? If you find your projects becoming too weighty or overwhelming, how do you counteract that? Do you ever indulge in random stitchery, or are you a purely-planned-project stitcher? What’s your take on random, off-the-top-of-your-head embroidery? I’d love to hear about it – feel free to have your say below!
This lattice work sampler is part of the Stitch Fun Series here on Needle ‘n Thread. You’ll find all the articles in this series, plus the line drawing for this strange sampler, located in the Stitch Fun Index, if you want to check them out!
