I was going to work on my Stockholm embroidery every day until it is done, and I really have, but I took a cheat day today. I found an active dogma embroidery group on Facebook and jumped right in.

Dogma embroidery is rule-bound, and at the same time the ultimate expression of free embroidery. Or maybe very free-ing. There is no goal to work towards. The thing you embroider isn’t aiming to become anything else. You’re not following anyone’s design, not even your own (if you’re actually following the principles and just doing).

Use fabric in your favourite colour. Use thread in the same colour, but in different qualities and values. Use only blanket stitch, in horizontal lines.

I didn’t have much orange fabric to choose from at home, and not much variety in the way of thread, either. Two kinds of orange DMC embroidery floss, a variegated red-orange-yellow perle cotton, and one wool thread that I remembered as looking orange against other backgrounds but that became more of a muddy red-brown against this bright orange cotton. But it was a pleasant exercise.