Winter Kisses Stitchscape

I'm rather chuffed with how this little one turned out. It was mostly completed on the bus, with barely a stitch done at home. That's a lot of roundabouts to be swirled around whilst executing the perfect bullion knot, and a lot of hard brakes for those hands that shoot out at the last minute by the side of the road, causing the bus to swerve violently into laybys- all without stabbing oneself with the needle (which did happen a couple of times, luckily I managed not to bleed all over the fabric). It makes me feel quite accomplished really and is very helpful towards getting deadlines completed with that extra two hours a day.

The Moda fabrics (from the Winterberry  collection) have been a joy to work with. They are exactly the right kinds of patterns to inspire different stitches, and I especially enjoyed the grey, twisted fabric at the bottom there which has been filled in with whip stitches and fly stitch. I might use that technique again as there are two more colour ways in the next stitchscape coming up. Ooh my fingers are itching to get onto that one!

I had a funny moment when finishing this piece. It didn't feel finished! I couldn't think what to do until we drove past some pigeons and the idea of adding some flying silhouetted birds came along. Personally I think they really finish the embroidery off- it was looking a bit dull and boring before. Funny how a few single fly stitches can add so much interest.

The other points of interest and festive spirit are with the sparkles that glitter in the light. The spiky cone/branch things (whatever they are meant to be- they are lovely either way) have been stitched with simple straight stitches in a metallic grey which contrasts beautifully against the bright red berries. There is more glitter in the stems of my bullion flowers, for no other reason than I liked it.

So, it is becoming customary for me to just list the different stitches used, although you guys could probably recite them back to me by now as I have such favourites, but here we go! Crammed into this little 15cm embroidery are; bullion knots, french knots, back stitch, long stitch, whip stitch, satin stitch, straight stitch, seed stitch and fly stitch. A little bit of festive cheer in the middle of summer!