January: The Tree, Part 4

I love this weird tree. When I first sat down to start on this month's stitch journal, I thought it was going to be boring working on this tree for an entire month. It was anything but boring. It unfolded over the course of the month and I love every stage of it, from very ugly and sad to magnificent (to me) and lovely. Is this everyone's cup of tea? No, but that's fine with me.

I didn't use a stabilizer for this project and it's very possible it would have helped make some of the stitching easier to manage. I'm not totally convinced, but I'm sure embroidery purists will clutch their pearls at the audacity of not using it. Or something. I was planning on trying a stabilizer in February, but I'm going to see how the first few days go before I decide. I will use it in March since I'm embroidering on a black t-shirt and it will make transferring easier.

I like this monthly piece approach to making a stitch journal. I haven't decided how these will be displayed at the end of the year, but I have a few ideas. For now, I'm going to hang this cardigan on a hanger in my studio so I can enjoy my weird tree.

The last recap of January 2023:

January 22

January 23

January 24

January 25

January 26 - I had to finish some sections that were outside of the hoop when I originally worked on the tree.

January 27 - why do I think any type of specialty thread is going to be fun to work with?

January 28

January 29

January 30 - it's a wonky moon, but it's my wonky moon.

January 31 - I added Etoile thread in Blanc. It doesn't show up well in the photos, but it looks nice in person.

Why am I probably going to make this tree again? 

Other Pieces and Upcoming Projects

I started a few other pieces this week, including my Kanken backpack and another PopLush dinosaur pattern (yes, I have a problem). 

It will resemble a pink and orange sea creature when I'm done. Yes, I could have made flowers or cute woodland creatures, but where's the fun in that?

Also started experimenting with embroidering on cork trivets (these are from IKEA). I'm thinking this would be a cool addition to embroidering on kitchen items like the grease guard and fine mesh sieves. 

I'm planning on doing my whole Screams series as a single piece in 4 inch hoops. I was playing around with hoop layouts over the weekend. I'm also going to paint the hoops a silver (dark silver) or sparkly black.

Are you ready for Cats in Hats and Other Things?

I'm very excited to get started on February's stitch journal. The first twelve items or motifs have been added to the shirt. I'm still sketching items for later in the month and trying to decide if Keely will make an appearance.