I’m managing to get a few projects finished at the moment and today is time for another happy dance as I’ve managed to finish my last big garden embroidery for my embroidered garden fabric book. I wanted to finish it by the end of August, anticipating a couple of evenings stitching whilst we were away at the end of August, but the light wasn’t good enough, so last night as I watched (and sang along to!) the Last Night of the Proms I set to and got it finished.
Three weeks ago I was working on the left hand side of the Amber and Amethyst garden…
I stitched the bigger plants first such as the Golden Celebrations rose and the peony. I then made the two green circles into a pieris bush and a geum I filled in with veronica, pulmonaria, bluebells, crocosmia, sedum (that purple spodge in the middle!) echinacea and wallflowers.
It surprises me in a way, just how many flowers you can portray from so few types of stitches, the bulk of the flowers are French knots, of various sizes and some with stem stitch surrounds, they make roses, peony, bluebells, crocosmia, buddleia, veronica, pulmonaria… Chain stitch is also well used with clematis, foxgloves, leaves. Other stitches used are fly stitch (iris), straight stitch (geums, geraniums and echinacea) feather stitch, back stitch and straight stitch for stems.
This is the area of the garden I am portraying…
I’m really pleased with how it’s come out, a fair portrayal I think! I decided against adding the table and chairs as it would have been too difficult to get the angles right. This is where we sit on an afternoon or evening to catch the rays, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine.
I still have a couple of less detailed embroideries to do for my book but it’s going on the back burner until after Christmas (probably) as I need to make a birth sampler for my grandson for Christmas. Here’s the three main garden embroideries…
Here’s a little collage of some of the other pages…
This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from stitching by the sea, we all post our progress on our chosen piece every three weeks, please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,
Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon,
Daisy, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Cindy, MaryMargaret
thecraftycreek 
This is such a beautiful keepsake and your stitching is absolutely gorgeous. I am inspired by you.
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It has really come to life, the mixture of plants is amazing and a great representation of the real thing. I love all your pages but I particularly love the map and it is so different. Well done
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So so beautiful!
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This is such an amazing keepsake of your garden. So very creative Margaret!
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Magical is what comes to my mind when I see this 🙂
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I am in love with your garden, Margaret! What a fantastic treasure this book is going to be! 🙂
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This is just magnificent!! I’m so glad I follow your blog because I get to see your wonderful art!
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How utterly wonderful 😍
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So pretty, both the garden and your stitching.
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Love all your work!
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seeing all the pages, wow!
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I’m gobsmacked! We’ve watched this grow one page at a time and it was amazing but seeing it all at once…..it’s stunning and so clever too. I love the page with the plan of all the houses too. Thank you for sharing with us all.
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Absolutely beautiful. All of it! 🙂
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Thank you.
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