Wherein the Embroiderer Squints Her Eyes

The embroiderer draws a deep breath cursing the needle jabbing into her thumb. Will this FrankenStitch creature never be done! Evolving from the Playful Free-Form Embroidery step-outs, it is slowly gaining a life of its own. Only a few more details to add, and maybe she can rest her weary fingers and finish the bag of cookies.

She casts a critical look over the design. What does it lack? What will breathe even more life into it? Snatching up a narrow length of green felt, she snips it into shape and places it on the lower edge of the blue fence. A fern stitch made with a size 8 Lime Frappe thread from the mysterious Artfabrik dyers cascades down each spike of fabric. This green fabric repeats the garden colors and theme and finishes the lower edge neatly.

Then she squints her eyes and gasps in disbelief. She has forgotten to repeat the red hue found in the large flowers! How could such an error escape her notice? It must be from lack of sustenance. And so she stacks fly stitches atop each other to make jaunty flowers above the pointy fabric using a size 12 red hots thread.

Shuddering with relief, the embroiderer adds a sweet little French knot to each bloom and rewards herself with yet another cookie. Yes, repetition is a good element of design to remember when creating artwork. And the repetition of color is among the best.

Wherein the Embroiderer Is Led Down the Garden Path

The embroiderer shuffles back into the studio with a hot cup of tea and several cookies. What more can she do to bring the FrankenStitch to life? Her memory of the dread when her editor returned the step-outs for Playful Free-Form Embroidery has disappeared like a packet of cookies. Instead, she now sees the odd parts as a familiar whole. They are becoming a new design, a unified embroidery with personality, quirks, and a sprinkling of cookie crumbs.

And so, she concentrates on the garden areas of the design, filling in the black background fabric with seed stitches here and adding straight stitches inside a lazy daisy stitch there. The fine size 12 Pickles and heavier size 8 Ocean from the elusive Artfabrik dyer fit the color scheme and sew like butter.

Whip stitches in bright Oranges thread lace through the birdhouse stick and the stems of the red flowers. The blue daisy stems are crisscrossed with blanket stitches using Bordeaux (the thread, not the wine).

It is not lost on her that her indoor hand embroidery “garden” replaced her outdoor gardening. Both indoor and outdoor activities soothe the soul. Although with indoor gardening, you can munch cookies while stitching. And there are no mosquitoes.

To be continued….

Wherein the Embroiderer is Contrite

The embroiderer gazed with dismay at the FrankStitch design, a combination of step-outs from her book Playful Free-Form Embroidery. The half-flower looks so sad. Why had she cut it down the center following the straight edge of the black fabric?

Then, in a show of solidarity with the tragic half-flower, the embroiderer trims the remaining edges of the design in organic curves. But it is not enough.

So the embroiderer snips off the sad half-flower and replaces it with a full flower that extends over the edge of the design. Yes, she regrets her rash use of the scissors in the past. But this time, she tries to make up for it.

Returning to the design, the embroiderer again selects a hand-dyed thread from the enigmatic Artfabrik dyer. It is a size 8 Aquamarine thread that repeats the rich hues of the stitched garden. She applies a backstitch around the sun’s edge using the blue thread, then echoes the yellow fly stitches that form the sun’s rays. The reward of another cookie lures her ever onward.

To be continued….