Ambrosia Stitches

So yesterday, having a couple of hours free, I sat down to stitch. I was feeling a little cross stitched out so I decided I needed to spend some time free hand stitching

I really should have carried on a bit with the flower window in the picture above. It has been a while since I made progress with this one. For some reason though, I just couldn’t. It has been such a busy couple of weeks that I didn’t really have the energy to come up with any creative ideas which is what this piece requires. I also didn’t feel up to anything fiddly, I wanted something much more free flowing and soothing.

It had to be this one! No choices about stitches – I can do any stitch as long as it’s satin stitch! I have limited the palette to only five colours (for now) so I know exactly what goes where. It was simply a matter of getting into a gentle rhythm of satin stitching.  It was like a tonic! As I mentioned before, it has been so busy here with guests and having to arrange things both here and in the UK. A holiday we had planned to take about now has had to be postponed until the end of next month.  We have a number of decisions to make as my sabbatical ends this summer. Nothing too awful – it just all requires a lot of head space at the moment. So as I stitched bands of satin stitch, I felt like all of my thoughts became much more ordered.

I know all stitching is calming (once you have mastered the skill – until then it can be stress inducing!).  Yesterday I discovered, for me, satin stitch is the most soothing. Not least because when you finish it you get to run your fingers over the lovely, smooth surface! Aaaaah!