Spring Comes Softly

It was whilst I was looking at past posts that I realised that the Stitchscape I am currently working on has not yet appeared on this blog, and I have nearly finished it! How very remiss of me. I have named it 'Spring Comes Softly' as that is what it reminds me of; all of the shades of green, the colours of the pretty little flowers that start to creep through and the gentle yellowing of the sky at sunrise, just before the sun itself appears on the horizon. There is still a little bit of grey in the landscape at this time of year though, which is represented with my little grey boulder-esque fabric hump.
The fabrics I have chosen are recently purchased (naughty, naughty) Indigo Fabrics fat quarters that have appeared at work and caught my eye. The patterns are perfect for Stitchscaping as they are small and repetitive, and conjure up all sorts of ideas for stitches to enhance the prints.

Currently, I am on holiday in Wales, near Carmarthen, and it is a really pretty place to sit and sew, especially as I have found a little nook in a very deep window ledge overlooking the stream running alongside the holiday home- a converted water mill. As The Mother pointed out, I don't usually write blog posts during holidays, especially when the WiFi is not that brilliant and every time I upload a photo, everyone else's WiFi access stops (The Parent's are trying to catch up on Who Do You Think You Are). There will be plenty of blog posts about the holiday when I get back next weekend and I am so chuffed already with some of the photos I have managed to take on my new camera. The settings and focus and light is just so fantastic and I'm having great fun with the different lenses and the zoom! But I digress, back to the Stitchscape!
I have included a couple of interesting yarns into this 'scape, I really like the bottom one with the swirly, looped thread and have used it before in a couple of other pieces. The other yarn is a woven chevron in a sort of jute thread which goes amazingly well with the zingy green fabric beneath it.

My favourite layer is the top green layer. This has gone so beautifully and took ages but the time was well worth it, don't you think? The stems are a two strand whip stitch over two strand back stitch in one green colour, then the little leaves are a single strand detached chain in a fantastic variegated DMC embroidery thread. Even this little variation through the layer brings so much more light and sunshine to the piece! Finally, in the print there were little circle, bud-like stems alongside the leaves and I have embellished these with little French knots in the same yellow as the top layer to help bring the colour through.

The grey 'stone' layer also took an awfully long time as I have covered each little splodge with a rough satin stitch. I started out wanting all of the stitches to be going in the same direction, but it got a little silly as some of the splodges were little more than horizontal lines, and to try and fill these with vertical stitches made me go a tad cross-eyed. So in some places the lines go in the best direction for that of the splodge they are covering, which I don't think looks too bad. The texture is really lovely, and it is nice to run your fingers over.

So I am now working on the final layer, filling in the flower print fabric with different stitches. The white flowers have been filled with detached chain stitches, one of the blue flowers has three strand cross stitches, and I am currently filling in a more turquoise colour flower with tiny fly stitches, one fly stitch per petal (assuming they are four petalled flowers). I daren't count how many fly stitches this means I end up doing- perhaps you can count for me if you have the time?
The last thing to do will be to add in the customary bullion knot flowers which are patiently waiting to bloom. The stems are in already and any day now the flowers will blossom and the Stitchscape will be completed! Hurrah!

Don't worry though, I have come on holiday prepared, and there are two more Stitchscapes bagged in the wardrobe ready to go when the occasion arises. So much excitement!