Summer Flowers: Get them both: contains more stitching wisdom and creativity.

Hand Stitch Recognizable Summer Flowers is another book that is full of ‘tricks of the trade’.  It features another 23 flowering plants that use a variety of basic stitches in creative ways.  There is nothing very difficult to any of this, it is just ‘knowing how to go about it.’  As you will see, from the two flowers/plants excerpted from the book, that, once you know how. it is just a matter of doing it.

You will realise from previous blogs, that the plants and flowers can be used in any way you wish.

Lavender, Delphinium, Veronica and Liatris are all worked in Herringbone Stitch.

Lavender is a bushy plant with long, delicate stems and leaves.  The blue/mauve flowers form long spikes with a knobby texture.  It looks to be related to Veronica but the structure and colour of the leaves are different.

Stalks and Leaves:  Green 988 (2).  Flowers:  Blue/Mauve  340 (1) + 210 (1) = 2.

Stalks:  Stitch some stalks in Straight Stitch adding a few shorter straight stitches as leaves to fill out the  base of the plant.  Add some flowers to the stalks.  Create bends or curves in the stalks by displacing the stalk to one side with the point of an awl or with  another needle.  This is done while the flower spikes are being stitched.  Add until a lavender bush of the size and shape you wish is achieved

Flowers:  Use one thread each of the blue and light mauve.  Stitch with Open Herringbone stitch.  Start at the upper end of the stalk and cover the desired length of the stem.  Note that the stitching is narrow in width and that the stem forms padding for the flower spike.   Start stitching just above the tip of the stem, or start slightly below the tip for a flower spike that is not yet fully open.

Water Garden, stitched by Ann Bernard (original is 4″ x 6″)

Lavender, Veronica, and Alyssum are featured in this garden.

Purple Coneflower

The Purple Coneflower grows in clumps and reaches a height between 2′ and 4′.  It blooms from mid summer into the autumn.  Each flower opens with pink/purple petals and a flat centre similar to a Shasta Daisy.  As the flower ages and the seeds in the centre ripen, the petals droop down to become vertical and the centre becomes larger and domed, eventually becoming cone shaped.  One plant can have flowers in different stages of development.  The birds and bees love this plant.

Stalks:  Green 987 (6).

Leaves:  Green 702 (2) + 988 (1) + 987 (1) = 4.

Petals:  Pink 3609 (2), 3608 (3), 3607 (1).  Explained in Petal directions.

Centres:  Brown 433 (1) + 938 (1) = 2.  Orange 721 (1 doubled in the needle) = 2.

Stalks:  Using long Straight stitch the centres of each of the flowers with a small Cross stitch in either of the two brown threads.

Petals:  Stitch a few Straight stitch petals in each bloom using 3609 (2).  Add more petals using 3608 (3).  Note that the petals are uneven in length and that the petals are darker towards the centre of the flower.  Overstitch the base of the petals with one thread of 3607.

Centres:  433 (1) + 938 (1) + 721 (1) = 3.  Overstitch a few horizontal Straight stitches across the central brown Cross stitch.  Using 721(1)  doubled in the needle = 2, overstitch a few French Knots on the centres using a fine needle for this such as a Crewel 9 or 10.

Leaves:  702 (2) + 987 (1) + 988 (1) = 4.  Detached Chain stitch with the catch stitch towards the stalks of the plant.  The upper leaves are stitched with 702 (2) + 988 (1) = 3.  The foliage on this plant is fairly dense with the leaves being an oval with a point at the tip of the leaf.  The angles of the leaves vary considerably.

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And then there are the Dandelions which is the most looked at photo on this blog.  Stitching these is so easy it took a genius to figure it out!!!

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Most, but not all of the gardens are stitched on medium weight quilting cotton that has been photo printed.  The instructions for this are included in the book.

The flowers are divided into stitch groups such as Herringbone, French Knots, Detached Chain, Straight etc.  To interpret each flower, the stitch is adapted in a specific way.

Preparation of the fabric, photo printing, finishing and mounting the completed piece on foam core board are all included in the book.  This makes it an ideal book for technical reference as well as for creative use of stitches.  Experienced, as well as new stitchers, will find valuable information included in both books.

For a short time only, send me a comment and I will send you the code for a half price download of this ebook.

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Happy New Year.   Ann