The People Chose Monochrome

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  Each month I ask for suggestions on the blog and then make a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

August - Monochrome

September - Bees

October - Cats

Monochrome - a photograph or picture developed or executed in black and white or in varying tones of only one colour.

Something you find quite often in stitching although we usually go for the colour rather than black and white.  A monochrome design can be a fantastic way to use those hand-dyed fabrics and variegated threads.  For many people it's a chance to change colours for the first time without worrying whether they will co-ordinate, unlike a design with a wider range of colours.

My first monochrome was an unintentional stitch.  My Mum had started it but come to a halt, so after a year of not stitching it she offered it to me to finish.  I don't know who the desinger is, it came as a kit from a catalogue

The only issue I had with this was that my Mum stitches her xxx the opposite way to me, so I had to make sure I did the same!

I obviously enjoyed the experience because the next year I started a series of three I call "Blackwork in Purple" - DMC 3041 to be precise.

The first two were bought designs and the final was designed by myself using motifs from a library book of sampler motifs.

This is a nice example of using colour to create some interest in a simple design:

The Stitcherhood - Love freebie

Now, one of the problems with monochrome designs is that they can be a little ... boring?  repetitive?  relentless?  That's how I felt about this design by A Mon Ami Pierre until I hit upon the idea of stitching it each evening while the Small Boy was in the bath!  This post shows the monthly progress photos back in 2014 - November WIPocalypse 2014

A Mon Ami Pierre- Noel Blanc

This worked so well I had another bath-time monochrome finish the following year:

Prairie Moon - Thine is the Trick and the Treat

It's not just samplers that make nice monochrome designs, many designers do some gorgeous silhouettes.  Passione Ricamo does a free fairy every June, of which I have stitched exactly one which I gave away!

I am realising how many designs I could show you!  So I will finish with this one, the fabric caused me no end of issues so I abandoned it and have plans to make a box surround out of what I have stitched so far:

While looking for the photo I found this collage - Orange and Black make a very striking contrast!

Now it's over to you. All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Monochrome, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog. I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Blue, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.  Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!