I seem to be doing a lot of embroidery at the moment, lots of little ones which don’t take long but are lovely to stitch…and they’ll go in my garden textile book. These ones are from a ‘Treasure Bundle’ I bought from Soukie Soo, it was a mystery bundle and there’s lots of sweet little designs to stitch on lovely vintage linen or cotton.

I’m trying to adapt the designs a little so that they show flowers which I have in my garden. This little wreath had a circle of leaves and some simple flowers om stems. I decided to turn it into a wreath of lilac. We had several lilac trees when we first moved in but they’re actually quite short lived trees and one day one fell over across the drive, luckily there was nothing underneath it. I tested the other three lilacs down the drive by giving them a little push and they all fell over! We’ve still got an old one behind the summerhouse which I keep testing every few months as I don’t particularly want it to end up on the summerhouse and also one near the big fence which sprouted up after the main trunk fell down!

I stitched the leaves with fish bone stitch and then used lots of French knots for the lilac flowers. I added some single French knots where there was a bit of a gap.

The next piece was a long garland sort of design. I decided to do this one as Teasing Georgia, which was the rose I had climbing up the arch over the patio until last year. It had lovely yellowy-orange blooms. I used a variegated DMC thread and bullion knots. Again I added a few French knots to fill in the spaces.

Another one from the bundle which I’ve embroidered today is just the word Butterfly, it was printed rather than written with disappearing ink but the stitches have pretty much covered the print. This one is going in a butterfly book, more of that another day! I’ve photographed it with another one which is waiting to be stitched.

It’s nice to do these little ones when I’m in the middle of some long term projects. If this style appeals to you, do have a look at Sookie Soos website, she does full kits as well as just the design on fabric.