In My Hoop...
Bridget Kettle adapted our Houses SAL to make sure the Barnstaple house reflected her very own home…
Bridget Ke le is a happily retired hospital doctor living on the edge of a village in the gorgeous countryside near Barnstaple in North Devon. Our British Houses SAL from 2023 inspired her to include her own house within the design…
“I stitched it on evenweave, which is my preference, used quite a few fractional stitches, and added a title. To personalise it, I decided I wanted to depict our own house (somewhat modified to fit), which I had fun designing. This is the result, which I’m quite pleased with—I wonder if anyone else did the same?” she explains.
Bridget has been stitching for as long as she can remember, “Both my grandmothers taught me embroidery, and my mother kni ing and dressmaking. I think the first cross stitch I did was on gingham at primary school and then a li le later on ‘binca’ using soft embroidery co on. As time went on, I did a lot of dressmaking and tapestry work, and I got more into cross stitch in the 1980s but always combined with other types of needlework, especially tapestry, as evidenced by the many cushions around our home. One of them is even adapted from a cross stitch design – Maria Diaz’s sleeping cat, done on 12 count canvas.
“I love cross stitch because it helps me to completely relax, ‘switch off ’ and forget about any worries of the day. I also enjoy watching a design gradually evolve from a blank piece of fabric and get a curious pleasure from handling all the different coloured threads. I mostly stitch in the evenings watching TV with the aid of a lamp with a daylight bulb and the right spectacles for the job, which I find essential, but not usually any other magnifying aids. I also always take my latest project with me on holiday – I can feel deprived if I don’t do some stitching every day!”
As Bridget lives in quite a rural area, the availability of supplies nearby is now limited. “We used to have an excellent craft shop in Barnstaple which had a good needlework department, but sadly this closed a year or two ago when the owners retired, and we just have a department store that has some limited supplies, so I’ve increasingly had to resort to going online – when I was younger I used to love browsing through needlework and craft shops! However, over the years, I’ve built up such a stash of materials and kits I don’t need to buy anything very often, and indeed, I think I have enough to last me for the rest of my life! “I subscribed to and read the sister magazine Cross Stitch Collection more or less from its first issue, changing to CrossStitcher when it was discontinued, so for a good few years.” The types of design Bridget works on are quite wide-ranging, but she mostly likes fairly large and detailed projects, and whenever possible, she prefers evenweave or linen fabrics.
“I have done several of the Heritage Stitchcraft map designs and also the Flying Scotsman picture for my husband, as he is a great fan of railways in general and the Flying Scotsman in particular. Over the years I have done quite a few wedding and anniversary samplers for family and friends, who I hope have been pleased with them. I tend to have one large project at a time on the go, but I may stop this for a while to do smaller things for a particular reason– for instance, the Inner Wheel Association of which I’m a member has been celebrating its centenary this year and as part of this they asked local clubs to do post box toppers to raise the profile of the organisation. I did the le ering for ours on 7 count plastic canvas using acrylic kni ing wool – quite a departure from my usual style!”
Do you have a stitching story to share? Drop us a line at crossstitcher@warnersgroup.co.uk or write to the postal address on page 5 and you and your projects could feature here!
I love cross stitch because it helps me to completely relax, ‘switch o ’ and forget about any worries of the day