New Project! Blackwork Bookmark

As predicted, I couldn't resist starting on another blackwork project, this time a quick-stitch bookmark using one of the excellent free designs from Jeanne Dansby at WyrdByrd Designs. I'm using the same inverted white stitching/black background as Monarch to show off colourful specialty stitches, this time in cotton floss instead of metallic.

So far, I have the blackwork frame worked (and will have photos soon!) but haven't yet started in on the specialty stitches. I'm just going to fill as I go, with whatever takes my fancy. This is not the way I usually work, but I'm finding it to be very exciting :)

I have picked out a cotton backing fabric, in a colourful print highlighted with metallic gold, and a quick shopping trip with a snippet yielded four good matches to the main colourways. Here is a photo of the fabric and the colours, with numbers, I'm intending to use:



The beautiful fabric is not new to me; it's been a part of the large treasure trove my Mother has cultivated for sewing and other creative projects over the years, and has long been a particular favourite of mine. So I'm thrilled to finally be making something with it!

Surprisingly, this will actually be my first cross-stitched bookmark. I love to read, and have always loved bookmarks, with their lovely tassels and pretty pictures or sayings. In fact, I like bookmarks of all types, from lowly plastic-laminated to those made of pewter.

However, there has always been one problem: I keep losing them! No matter how careful I've been with their placement, they just magically vanish soon after I start using them. And this has gone on for years. I'm not the only one in my family, so I suspect it must be some sort of genetic quirk, but this has resulted in a sad lack of bookmarks in my life.

About two years ago, when I caught myself tearing off random strips of paper (!) to mark my place, I thought enough was enough, and went shopping with determination. It took me a few months to find something that wasn't overly childish or drearily sentimental, but I eventually found and bought myself three lovely bookmarks. Nothing really special - just plastic - but with artwork by an artist whose work I have liked for a very long time. I never intended to cross-stitch a bookmark, but lately had an "aha!" moment and decided that I would treat myself to a small piece of stitching that would be useful as well as decorative.

Providing, that is, that I don't lose it ;)

Happy Stitching!