Hello Friends and Fellow Stitchers,
Lazy Daisy stitches and French Knots have been used forever for portraying flowers. Using alternative but basic stitches was my mission when I developed and then published Hand Stitching Recognizable Summer Flowers. After much experimentation and, many failures, here are the results. You will not have to do what I had to do. You can pick up your needle, the correct coloured thread and stitch up any of the flowers in this book knowing that the result will be as pictured or, your own personal interpretation of the information. I am including one if the 23 flowers in this ebook as more is content overload for one entry.
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 center similar to a Shasta Daisy. As the flower ages and the seeds in the center ripen, the petals droop down to become vertical and the center becomes larger and domed, eventually becoming cone shaped. One plant can have many 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.
Centers: Brown 433 (1) + 938 (1) = 2.Orange 721 (1 doubled in the needle) = 2
Stalks: Using long Straight stitch the stalks of the plant. Indicate the centers 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 can be darker towards the center of the flower. You can Overstitch the base of the petals with one thread of 3607 but this is not essential.
Centers: 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 centers 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.
Stitched size is 2″ wide x 2 1/4″ high.
Briarwood Garden, stitched by Janet Sunderani (original is 6 1/2″ x 5 1/2″)
This delightful garden reminded Janet of, and is named after, the garden she had to leave behind when the little used road next to her property became a four lane highway. All that noise would not suit this peaceful scene.
The background fabric was created using loose silk threads that were machine needle felted into a scrim background. We generally used pale green batik cotton fabric for the backgrounds which is easy to stitch on. We also used photo prints on fabric for many of the gardens. The directions on how to do this are included in the book.
The flowers in the above garden are Purple Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susan, Lavender and Roses. You will find them all in the book Hand Stitch Recognizable Summer Flowers. eBookIt.com Go to Bookstore – Crafts and Hobbies and select this book and/or Spring Flowers. Choose your download method and then go to purchase. eBook format makes these books very affordable.
Learning by trial and error can be missed experience by those who follow the information in the section on preparation of fabric and threads. Few embroidery texts include all this information which is why I included it. The assumption is that everyone already knows the whys and hows which is not always true. You will jump ahead in embroidery skills and be delighted with improved results when you follow the directions that are included in both these books. Knowing exactly how to do things can make learning the skill of embroidery enjoyable rather stressful.
Tune in tomorrow for the second part of this posting.
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