It’s three weeks since I last showed you my flower lattice embroidery, this is how far I’d got then;
I’ve managed to get a few extra supplies on e-bay since then with this embroidery in mind, I bought a big pack of Anchor perle 8 threads, the photo of my box of threads only shows the top layer! I was using some I’d found in my stash before and to be honest they look a bit shiny to me. I did look at some beautiful threads from an embroidery supplier but I’m afraid it came down to cost, I could get forty Anchor threads for the price of about five of these other ones. I love the colours of these Anchor ones too, hopefully they will be useful. On the auction side of ebay I also won the bidding for some silk ribbons and some silk embroidery threads, these look like they have been left over from a kit, judging by how much there is I don’t think the embroidery was finished! They feel gorgeous and the colours look useful for flowers!
I used the perle thread for the lower flowers of the hollyhocks. These are stitched with cast-on stitch, it took me ages to get my head round this stitch, I couldn’t get the hang of which way the thread was looped onto the needle. It’s basically a bit like casting on with knitting, the effect is of a buttonhole stitch over a single thread which can be looped round as needed. It is stitched using a milliners needle (or straw needle) I’d not come across these before I started this embroidery. They do make a big difference. Apparently the eye is no bigger than the shaft of the needle, as we would say at work, it’s very low profile! This is say compared to a chenile or a crewel needle where the eyes are somewhat bigger than the shaft. The advantage of the milliners needle becomes apparent when you are stitching 24 cast-on stitches, or making a bullion stitch, the loops just glide over the needle without jammimg on the eye.
It seemed to take ages to stitch the hollyhock, the lower flowers have three stitches with a total of forty loops on each one!! The top ones are stitched with DMC stranded cotton using bullion knots.
I’ve embroidered the little ladybird crawling up the agapanthus stem and added the leaves on the agapanthus too. I was pretty pleased with the hollyhock leaves as I dyed the ribbon myself using silk paints. The paints I’ve got are set using an iron, so it’s pretty easy to do.
The delphinium is embroidered using some of the silk ribbon I got on ebay. The 7mm strips were cut into short 4cm lengths, gathered along the two short sides and one long side, pulled into a rosette and stitched on. There’s a french knot in each one but they don’t seem to be centring the flower, so I might go back and stitch a lighter, bigger centre. I’ll have a play on the second delphinium first.
I think the rest of this diamond should be fairly quick, so hopefully in three weeks time I’ll be onto the next one, the irises.
I neede to get cracking with this embroidery as I’ve just bought a copy of Inspirations magasine and my next three embroidery projects are in there!!
There are quite a few of us taking part in the stitch-a-long now with some stunning projects being made, why not follow the links and see what everyone else is creating;
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Susan, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Catherine, Wendy
thecraftycreek 
They are so pretty
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I really Love this embroidery, so very pretty and well executed.
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very nice.
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I have said this before, and will say it again. Absolutely beautiul. I am in awe of your embriodery skill.
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this is so beautifully full of texture. Any idea how you’re going to finish it off?
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I’ll take it down to my picture framers for a deep frame!
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Wow this one just gets better and better. I love the hollyhocks and delphiniums, you have a wonderful talent there.
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Oh wow, the hollyhock has to be my favourite so far – what an extraordinary process to get that gorgeous result!
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I do love how your piece has the added dimensionality from the ribbon embroidery and 3D stitches. It’s really exquisite!
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This frame sure has a lot going on!! You have learned so much with this already, are you starting to see these new stitches wherever you look? I can hardly wait to see the irises! Thanks for doing this piece so that we can all enjoy it with you!
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Just one word. WOW. Can’t wait to see more.
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I do love your embroidery and it is getting more and more gorgeous every time you show it!
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I’ve just caught myself with my jaw dropped. This is so beautiful. I love every stitch.
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Amazing! This is just incredible. I know what you mean about cast on stitch – it’s not the easiest or quickest stitch to stitch, but the effect here is just brilliant! I too love milliners needles for things like cast on stitch and billions – a much more civilised stitching session 🙂 I can’t wait to see this diamond finished! Well done on the supplies too – I love buying things to add to my stash!
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Wow! “Magical” came to mind 🙂 Your embroidery is impressive and the hollyhocks look so beautiful in the aerial shot.
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Wow, that Hollyhock is stunning. I haven’t come across cast on stitch before. It’s looks amazing. Gorgeous Delphiniums too 🙂
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I’ve just started practicing that stitch you’ve used for your hollyhocks. It’s a long old process. Your result is spectacular! Doesn’t it make you appreciate other people’s embroidery when you personally know what went into it!
I shall head over to ebay -great idea!
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Wow what a talent you have. Just beautiful! I would love to learn that type of stitching.
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Pardon me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard… What a lovely bunch of threads you were able to acquire! And what you’ve done with them!!! I learned about milliner’s needles a while back and choose them over embroidery needles frequently now. I assume Inspirations is a UK publication but I’m going to have a look online to see what I can find out about your next three projects!
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Thanks Sue, Inspirations is actually an Australian magazine, I think it’s in a class of it’s own for embroidery projects, the UK magasines seem to aim themselves pretty much at newbies, but many of the Australian ones are for those with a bit more experience who wish to push themselves, the projects are stunning! I used to get the sister magazine ‘Smocking’ too and Just Cross-stitch which was also Australian.
If you want to look, it’s issue 93, I want to make the Etui, strawberry thief embroidery and the Mandala…that’ll keep me quiet for a while!!
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I did go look them up online. I can totally see why you’d want to make those particular projects! I was tempted to purchase a copy or two of the magazine but my chemical sensitivities make a lot of publications hazardous. If the pages are glossy they’re nearly always toxic to my system. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Stampington &Co. publications based here in the US. I’m able to enjoy them safely after they’ve aired out a day or so. They don’t have an embroidery magazine in their line-up unfortunately. 😦
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