I have been immersed in stitching a group of new work. This involves hours of sitting closely with each piece, listening to music or iPlayer radio documentaries while I stitch. I made a decision with this group that hardly any of the stitched marks would be functional. The cloth is held together with invisible stitching and the visible stitches are there solely as marks. This gave me more freedom to play with the edges of the cloth. Sometimes, it looks as though the stitches are holding pieces together - but then they tail away or wander off somewhere else.
I also experimented with stitching from the back. While the results have some of the loose, erratic quality I like, I think I could have pushed this further. Too cautious this time.
