Emerald Isle Stitchscape

 

This little stitchscape is a real bundle of fun! So many colours, so many textures, so many stitches! My Dad came up with the name for this piece as I was struggling a little bit- it didn't have a specific inspiration or theme, but I really like what he suggested; Emerald Isle. 

Sounds kind of snazzy, doesn't it?

The background was cut and tacked together before my holiday to Sorrento as a possible plane project, but I didn't start it until I got home afterwards. It was also the demonstration piece at the Bridge Arts show at the weekend so it's a well travelled little embroidery!
The bottom half is my favourite bit, all that texture layered on top of itself- the zesty green bottom layer gives me great joy to look at and run my fingers over as it has so many textures just within that one fabric! The satin stitch bumps, both big and small, are so smooth and contrasting against the really tight, chunky whip stitch which follows the outline of the batik print. Add in some rows of running stitch, and a cluster of bullion knots and it's stitching heaven!

Moving up the piece, I really enjoy the fun little pink dot flowers. They are chunky french knots, using three strands of embroidery thread and about six twists of the needle, and they perch oh so daintily on top of those turquoise fly stitch stems. I felt that a little bit of grounding was needed though and added detached chain stitch leaves in a light green just to make them look a tad more realistic... if you can make them look realistic.

Right at the very top, just above the final sky layer, I've added a few little kisses as I was so pleased with the stitchscape reception at their first outing! Perhaps I should show my appreciation a little more with hidden kisses in my 'scapes- what do you think?

I'm also very chuffed with how my dense detached chain daisy flowers have turned out. The fabric print has the flowers represented as lines around the central spot, and I have used these as a template for the stitches, trying to start and finish each chain stitch on each side of the lines. I've also tried to follow the colours as closely as I could which has made for some interesting colour layering.

I would love to see how this one turns out as a print! My work is cut out this weekend, I have so many stitchscapes to try and photograph (hopefully it doesn't rain), and I also would like to start putting small original pieces and stitchscape minis in my Etsy shop, so keep an eye out for that!