January Murmuration Stitchscape Swap

 

What a gorgeous start to the 2025 Stitchscape Swap!! It's a slightly nail biting moment for me, wondering who is going to be joining in with another year but I was really pleased that so many of the ladies (no men! Come on chaps!) have carried on with another year, or at least another month of swapping. It sort of becomes part of your routine, and my routine seems to now be to start halfway through the month and panic for the rest of it in case I don't get finished in time. Of course, others are more organised than me!

We've also had a newbie to the group this month which is great, it's so nice to see that the swap is attracting more people. Other's have found this swap and creative journey really positive so I hope that the newer members are feeling/will feel the same way. 

But, just look at these gorgeous cards! If you read my post about my own Murmuration cards, I researched a little bit about what a Murmuration is and where they happen and I think we've covered all of those locations in this collection. There are several seaside, coastal cards, some more marshland/farmland looking areas, and several of them have direct references to the time of day a murmuration will often occur, which is around sunset. 

What is so nice is that several of these places are recognisable landmarks to East Sussex as well with Brighton and Eastbourne piers both appearing. This has been a great theme for local encounters and experiences of Murmurations to be brought to life in textile form. 

One of our members, Jackie, jokingly said on the Facebook page that this was an ideal swap for fly stitch, and she's not wrong! However, there is still quite a range of stitches used to represent birds. Sharon (above) has actually stitched her birds with a sort of rough satin stitch which has given them fantastic movement, especially with the different shades of thread used creating discreet shadows. 

Several cards have had a similar idea to mine and used a fabric underneath their bird swirls to help fill in the gaps and make it seem like there are more birds there without having to stitch them all. I love the simplicity of Jacquie's card here with that cut silhoutte at the bottom. Jacquie's cards are easy to identify because she has such a neat way of edging her cards with the sewing machine. The variegated thread she's used for this edging is perfect. 

I really enjoy Sabine's fly stitch birds - and the fish, they are good fun - they almost appear to be marching across the sky which makes you think of the murmuration in a slightly different way, more like a military drill. Perhaps that's what they are, practice for something. 

Jackie's birds are TINY! The smallest of small fly stitches used to bring the murmuration dance to Eastbourne pier with its distinctive golden domes. I also love the addition of the white fly stitches to represent seagulls!

Water has been represented in really interesting ways in these two cards, just as straight stitch line reflections in the above card, using all of the colours from the sunset in thread to create the reflection.

The card below feels kind of rubbery so I'm not sure what she's used for the background. It's like lots of threads glued together but the glue is sort of spongey? I love the use of threads to create wave texture, all sorts of creatures could be lurking in those depths. It's a pretty evocative depiction of Brighton West pier which is a great habitat and roosting spot for all sorts of sea creatures.

Sam has rather cleverly used dress net to act as the background for her birds, then filled in some gaps with little seed stitches for individual birds and to create extra depth. 

All in all, a very successful month, both in terms of participants and also in the great range of interpretations and techniques used in the cards themselves.