Slow stitching - and measuring, and marking, and piercing...

 My work is slow and sometimes some work is slower than others.

I am preparing the final piece of my pegs. My pegs, which I have carried around with me since at leat 2019. That I have wrapped and unwrapped, tidied up, switched over the style of peg, played with as an art installation and finally worked out what they are meant to be.

I have loved these pegs at every stage of our relationship and am thrilled, and scared to be finally committing to their artwork.

It involves attaching them to a large sheet of paper, and adding stitching around them. 

I have spent hours considering which threads to use. I have spent time trying to work out their layout and sequence. I have spent ages determining their placement and measuring the distance between them. I have spent many mouton working out what colour threads and combination might support them. I have done so much thinking and preparing, and now the time has come.

I committed to the paper and started a trial piece.  This nevertheless involved all the measuring and marking that the final will need.

I was trying for a vertical central line to stitch to; vertical lines to line up the heads of the pegs with; and horizontal lines for the running stitches. The running stitch lines then had to be marked out at 5mm distances, then holes pierced. One always pierces the holes in paper before stitching, rather than try to rely on the needle to pierce the papers we do with most fabrics.

I was trying to workout here as well, whether or not, and how to, include the labels I had been using.

I had to determine how long to make the stitching lines, and whether I wanted this little bit of meeting in the middle and overlap or not. I did.

Working out the next pairings.

Coming together. After piercing I worked out from this trial that I needed to rub out the line; other than try to do it after the stitching had happened. All good learning. I also learnt that after each row of stitching I would use the bone folder (above) to smooth down the top of the paper so that the pierced holes sit flat. The needle movement from below pushes some of the paper up and out and that is the part that needs smoothing.

Progress on the final piece. Rubbing out as I go.

I had to turn the paper around to keep stitching - otherwiseI was leaning over way too far.

In with one hand, 

Underneath, the bobbles of the pierced holes.

All the stitching rows complete! The dangling threads are quite long and whilst I like the loose look I am not sure if they will distract from the pegs or not. We shall see, and decide later.

Onwards.