Rainbow Showers ATCs

I think one of the top holiday destinations on my bucket list is to go and see tulip fields in Holland (maybe take a hot air balloon ride over them too which would tick two bucket list items off at once). I've been to Amsterdam in November time before and there were big tulip bulb markets everywhere and beautiful snow on the canals, but to see these glorious colours and happy rainbow stripes in the flesh would just be, oh so amazing!! 

When setting up the Stitchscape Swap ATC themes, I hadn't necessarily thought about tulips - the themes are all kind of based on what I associate each month with and the theme, Rainbow Showers, came more from thinking about April Showers and, oddly enough, an old TV advert with the "Drip, drip drop, little April Shower" song from Bambi with lots of steampunk cogs and wheels falling everywhere. I can't remember what it was advertising but it's funny where your mind goes! 

(I'll pop the Walt Disney lyrics to the song at the bottom of this post in case you are inspired by it to create your own steampunk rain fall!)

After all of those thoughts though, when it actually came down to it, tulip fields and the idea of rivers of rainbows made up of individual tulip droplets, gave me more inspiration. I have so many beautiful, bright fabrics that I could use that it was kind of an immediate YES and an awkward run to my stash drawers moment. 

I did a little bit of online photo research and was also reminded of the lovely windmills that are often associated with the tulip fields, which contrast so nicely in terms of colour too with the dark windmill and over-the-top tulips. 

My chosen fabrics include quite a few Kaffe Fassett prints which I was given for Christmas by my lovely boyfriend, which means that each stripe is slightly different due to the size of the print as well as Kaffe's uncontrollable desire for complicated colour use and patterns. I think all except the reddish colour stripe is a Kaffe print - the red one is just a pretty abstract floral design I picked up somewhere. 

I've teamed these with some lovely plains to balance out the drama happening at the bottom, and decided to use a dark brown for my windmill as a contrast. 

Initially the windmill was just going to be the plain shape with some sails stitched over it, but I had to make it slightly more complicated and make a base for the sails to originate from so, after working some rows of back stitch across the fabric to look a little bit like the wooden boards that the windmills seemed to be made from in the photos, and using the same colour thread to couch a border round, I cut little tiny circles from white felt to go in the centre of the windmill. I thought it would be easier to have a padded circle to go over for the shape rather than try to stitch a circle free hand so I carefully worked satin stitch over the top of the felt which created a, very pleasing, great padded lump on each windmill. 

From this I then stitched the first sail using straight stitches originating from the centre of the padded circle and (as I was locked in my bedroom with Covid at the time) got creative with creating a 'ruler' so that I could make sure that each sail was the same size, cutting up a bit of envelope to be my length and to help me keep things at roughly 90 degrees. 

The first two sails were fine to stitch but after that, with so much thread going through this one space, the effort this caused my fingers and thumbs was quite considerable!! It was definitely worth it though and I love the 3D look this has given them. I've used three different shades of brown thread for the whole windmill too which has worked nicely. 

My initial thought was to work big french knots along the bottom edge of the green fabric and to cover up the bottom of the windmill but then I remembered that I had some lovely, hand-dyed, cotton scrim in my drawer so I've cut a little strip of that for each one and used that instead. The thought is that it would be a tree line separating the tulips from the windmill, with the green fabric behind as further trees (it's not going to be mountains in Holland!). 

I didn't feel like I needed to add masses of texture to the bottom rainbow fabrics, although they did take quite a long time to do as they were so fiddly. I've tried to keep the fabric prints fairly similar to what they were originally, and used french knots to separate each layer and really bring home that droplet appearance. 

Starting left to right, the yellow layer has had its splodges filled in with satin stitch, the orange layer has been drawn around with a single strand of back stitch between each colour line, the red layer has just had some horizontal straight stitches added to cover any area of the mid-red shade and kind of scatter throughout the print, the pink layer has again had satin stitches covering the shapes (and this was fiddly to try and keep the skinny lines), and the blue/purple layer has had two strands of back stitches covering the spidery trails in the print. 

I could have added more and put in more colours (used more of the orange tones for the orange layer or added in stitches around the big blobs in the pink layer) but I think I would have ruined it if I'd gone too overboard. The focus is more on the colour and the scene as a whole - you are left to imagine those tulips yourself rather than be deliberately shown each one. 

I really love how each piece is different. Obviously the overall idea is the same, the fabrics are the same and the stitches used on each layer are the same but there are just little bits which make each card unique - the placement of the print, even the placement of the fabrics in some cases and how high the layers are, and where the embroidery stitches are too. I think my favourite one is where the scrim has more yellow to it on one side which matches the yellows of the fabrics below, like the sun has just come out on that one section. Do you have a favourite one?

From Walt Disney's "Bambi": 

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare
To your beautiful sound

Beautiful sound

Beautiful sound

Drip, drop, drip, drop

Drip, drip, drop

When the sky is cloudy
Your pretty music
Will brighten the day

Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along with a song right away
Come with your beautiful music

Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around
Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound

Drip, drip drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along, come along with your pretty little song
Drip, drip drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along, come along with your pretty little song

Gay little roundalay
Gay little roundalay
Song of the rainy day
Song of the rainy day
How I love to hear your patter
Pretty little pitter-patter
Helter-skelter when you pelter
Troubles always seem to scatter

Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around
Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound

Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around
Drip, drip drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound
Beautiful sound