Last year’s holiday journal

…is nearly complete.

I think I blogged my progress part way through this piece using a long strand of wavy beachcombed rope, but it’s now finished…

…and stuck in place inside the back cover.

I didn’t like the big gold coloured three holed bead that was previously on the right; it was far too big and bright and angular when everything else was round or wavy, so I cut that off and finished the text with a swirl of french knots.

 

I did plan for this to be the last piece in the journal until I was turning out a drawer and found an odd piece of painted watercolour paper in the front of a long-forgotten sketchbook. Nice and thick to stitch through. I cut some wave shapes, chose some tiny scraps of silk and toning thread and started to play.

Looking at those undulating curves, I couldn’t get the Walt Whitman quote (via Vaughan-Williams’  Sea Symphony) out of my head, so that went on too.

I’m very pleased with my unexpected find! Just one more job to do, but I can’t do that until I can get together everyone who went away with us.