Heather Stitchscape

It's finally finished!! Hurrah! I guess I say that about all of my stitchscapes, they seem to take ages whilst putting them together but in the grand scheme of things they don't take that long really. I love the process of them from the initial hazy mental image to the setting down of the fabric layers and the arrival of the stitches.

I should apologise for the haziness of the photographs- I finished the stitchscape just as it was turning dark outside but was too impatient to wait for good lighting to share it with you. I love the bottom of the 'scape, it is exactly how I had pictured it with the rich colours and thick texture. It's quite a heavy bottom and I decided against beads in the end, instead adding just a few spots of zesty green which appears further up in the stitchscape. It helped to tie the two layers together as well as adding pops of brighter colour to enhance the deep fruitiness of the purple.

I did ponder over the line of french and bullion knots that have been worked along the centre of the piece, and asked for feedback for it on the Dotty Textiles facebook page. I was concerned that it was too bright, and was either going to rip the whole row out or add an intermediate green to help blend it in with the fabric it was stitched on. I decided to leave it as it was though after a really great comment from someone on the facebook page saying that it reminded them of 'the sun catching the top of the hills'. It was such a lovely thing to say that it made me think again about pulling the colour out and I think the piece needs something really bright and zingy to lift the darker purples and greens so I'm pleased I left it in.

I've mentioned before about turning the piece over and seeing what the back looked like and I think this one is really lovely- a rough and rugged interpretation of the moorland.

I also thought it would be interesting to compare the two moorland inspired pieces, and to me I see slightly different times of year on the moors, I wonder if you see it too? The Moorland Stitchscape (left) is slightly later on in the year when the heather is fading away and there is less of it, but still blue skies and greenery in abundance. The Heather Stitchscape is earlier when the moorland is bright purple and in all it's summertime glory. It would be interesting to stitch a series of seasonal stitchscape maybe with the same basic layers but with different detailing adding the seasonal changes. I can't wait to mount these up and get prints made of them!