Tuesday, October 9, 2012

I have at last finished my stitching on Pam's blocks. I enjoyed myself with this stitching as it is great to be back in the swing again.
This is the feather stitch. The colours did not come out as well as I would have liked but you can just see the stitching and the little colonial knot silk ribbon flowers.




The next block is outline stitch I love this moth it is a bit different to the usual butterfly but I think lovley just the same. I stitched this in variegated floss using 2 strands for everything including the satin stitch, running stitch and chain

The straight stitch was done in rows of perle 8 pale yellow and then woven with a magenta. The green chain stitch outline is also perle 8. I added 5 little flower beads to the trellis made with the stitching.

The herringbone stitch is held down with a tiny cross stitch then fly stitch detached chain and pistil stitch are used to decorate it.
This set of blocks has been so much fun and has really tested my imagination and sewing skills. I can see the improvement in my stitching since I came back to embroidery. 
One of the problems I always had was I found "Fancy Work" was too constricting I was just using other peoples ideas and not my own just like paint by numbers for me. 
My Mother did the most beautiful work and in her later years started designing her own stuff. I am very much the proud custodian of these beautiful pieces.