Every Friday afternoon, year round, the Broiderers group meets. We all live in The Village by the Arboretum in Guelph, Ontario. Any resident who would like to stitch is welcome to join us. Edna Miller is one of our regular and productive members.
This is her own original design. The background is blue denim which is an excellent fabric choice as it is densely woven and has good body. She marked the skeleton of the design on the fabric using white chalk which disappeared as she stitched. The details of the flowers are all stitched freehand. She kept the whole design visible as she stitched so could see spacing and balance. She mounted the fabric tightly on a rectangular frame and thus had no problems with puckering. This has not been blocked and does not need to be blocked. It is ready for mounting.
Edna used many different stitches and used them effectively. Note her colour choices and how nothing disappears in to the background. Notice of the spray of red berries on the right side. It is obvious what they are but she has left spaces instead of stitching densely as she has for the pale blue flowers above.
Meet Sebastian, the ladybug. He is a piece of whimsy but he also balances the layout of reds in this piece. He is so small he is hardly visible but, he serves his purpose of bringing some red in to the lower part of the design. He is a surprise when you find him. Look at each colour in this composition and the triangular layout. It gives balance and harmony to the whole. The details give interest and make one look more closely to see what else one can find.
The peach centre of pink and mauve flower is unexpected and effective. There is so much to see in this piece. Every time I look at it I find something that I had not noticed before.
Edna intended this to be the side of a tote bag. The Broiderers have all said that it was too nice to be used and risk getting dirty and worn out. What do you think?
Congratulations Edna! This is a creative and effective piece of stitching.
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