Three weeks have flown by since I last showed you the Flower Lattice embroidery. It’s ribbon and stumpwork, designed by Di van Niekirk, I bought the book sort of by accident as I didn’t realise it was for one big picture, I then managed to get the printed background on ebay, all I’ve got to do is embroider it…

This is where I was three weeks ago;

I’m really enjoying this embroidery, it is a steep learning curve as there are stitches in this I’ve never heard of, never mind not tried! I’ve not quite managed though to find a comfortable slot for it in my sewing routine, as a result it tends to be a long the lines of ‘Oh gosh, it’s SAL time in three days, better do some!!’ I usually do my embroidery downstairs in the comfy chair, 10 minutes here, quarter of an hour there, whilst I’m cooking tea, having a coffee. You can do that with cross-stitch or the sort of embroidery I’ve been doing for the Splendid Sampler. This requires more concentration and more ‘stuff’, I’ve a box of ribbons, a box of DMC threads, a box of ‘fancy threads’, and I dip into all of them. I need to work out a better system, in the meantime…

On Friday night I embroidered the Wild Sorghum, I had no idea what it was but I learnt from Kate Chiconi it’s basically a fodder crop grown quite extensively in Australia…it’s very pretty in the picture!

I started with the stems, these are stitched with a single long stitch which is then couched down every few milimetres. I used a single strand of space dyed thread in a very soft green.

Next stage was the leaves. These were stitched with the same thread but using a chain-stitch, I thought the chain stitch might come out a bit bulky but with such a fine thread it worked really well.

The flower heads were stitched with french knots, straight stitches and pistil stitches. I’d never heard of the latter, but as I understand the instructions, it’s like a french knot on the end of a long thread.

The finishing touches were a few french knots and straight stitches around the base in a thicker cotton. It is space dyed in green, beige and soft purple. I managed to stitch the colours so I used the green part for the grass, beige for the earth and purple for a couple of stems in with the leaves.

I have to say, this is the one I’m most pleased with so far, in that it looks just like the one in the book!!

So that’s panel two complete, the next one is ‘A lily, narcissus & a lady bird’ I’ll show you my progress in three weeks time.

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis at Sewing beside the Sea, everyone chooses there own project and posts their progress every three weeks. Please have a look what every one else is creating, there’s some amazing stitching going on! Just remember we’re all different time zones, so if there’s nothing there, pop back a bit later, and if you would like to join in, just send a message to Avis;

• Avis at http://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com
• Claire at http://claire93.wordpress.com
• Gun at http://rutigt.wordpress.com
• Carole at http://aslightobsessionwithbooks.wordpress.com
• LucyAnn at https://lucyannluna.wordpress.com
• Jess at https://everthecrafter.wordpress.com
• Sue at http://sewingmagpie.blogspot.com
• Constanze at https://textiledreamer.wordpress.com
• DebbieRose at https://sewrosey.wordpress.com
• Christina at https://petalsandpins.wordpress.com
• Susan at http://susanpblog.wordpress.com
• Kathy at https://livinginrapidcity.wordpress.com
• Kate at https://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/
• Cindy at http://homeofaflossjunkie.blogspot.com
• Helen at http://stitchingranny.wordpress.com
• Steph at https://mymakingdoadventure.wordpress.com
• Linda blogs at http://lindascr8tions.wordpress.com
• Catherine blogs at http://hillviewembroidery.com
• Wendy at https://thecraftersapprentice.blogspot.co.uk/