Summer Meadow Take One

I took these photos on the 2nd April and never got around to writing anything about them on here, although I did share a few of my favourites on Instagram! These are the ATCs I initially made for the July, Summer Meadow theme, Stitchscape Swap cards (you can see my initial inspiration post about them here) although, at the time of finishing them, I decided that I wasn't really that keen on them. It just hadn't gone as I thought they might and I think it's the pink flowers that are throwing me off but I can't clearly say why. 

They have sat in plain sight for the past few months however and have been growing on me a little bit but I have also now made an alternative card design for the swap to choose from, which I'll write up about in another post. 

I loved the process of making these though and the colours are just lovely with that fresh white Daisy flower in the front to offset the richness of the colours behind. The fabric for the Daisies is a white batik with a little blue/grey pattern on it which, to me, looks like shadows on the petals where the flowers are standing in their field. I didn't want to cover these up as they are so delicate looking, and almost translucent in appearance with that dark moody blue behind, so they've just been edged with blanket stitch to keep the petals in place and the fabric from fraying. 

The pink flower isn't really based on a specific plant and I wanted to play with the idea of the colours fading or changing as the buds aged with an ombre of colour. We've currently got a Red Hot Poker plant in the garden and have been watching the colours change from yellow to orangey/red as the individual flower heads bloom and start to die away so that's kind of the vibe I wanted for these mysterious embroidered flowers. 

They have been free hand stitched using satin stitch and each flower cluster is made of three petals which I've tried to make bigger as they go down the stem. 

I think if I were to do these cards again I would allow for the scale of the petals to be much more obviously different as they go down the stem with much larger petals at the bottom. Perhaps even draw the flower on the back as a guide to follow, or not make this flower in stitching at all but use fabric petals like the Daisies - perhaps it's the contrast in techniques that's not sitting quite right? What do you think?

 

I love the fabric layers behind though. They've been kept fairly simple, just some texture stitches added on top and my usual bullion or french knot edgings, aside from one skinny couched cord on one edge. Working from the top down, the pale batik has a single strand straight stitch on either side of the line markings and rows of straight stitches in the blocks of colour. The dark layer beneath uses a single strand back stitch around the shapes through the fabric, which is totally random so some cards have more embroidery than others, then the leafy layer below has little stitches in clusters of three in each leaf (again with a single strand for delicacy). 

The bottom layer uses two strands of thread for the back stitch so that the lines are subtly thicker and appear closer. The stripes reminded me of the grasses so those lines help to give a linear grassy feel to the bottom of the scene which is very grounding. 

Before the arrival of my little one I had to tidy up my bedroom (and various other places around the house) to fit in all of the hundreds of things a tiny baby needs, and I came across my pot of clear sequins which were absolutely perfect as the finishing touch for these cards. I think I bought them during my university days and they are completely flat and smooth with an oily pink colouring to them. To me they are like those little sparkling flashes you get in photographs of objects in the sunshine where the light has reflected off a speck of floating dust or tiny seed head. I've used clear sewing thread to stitch these on to keep their ethereal bubble-like appearance and I love the way they pick up the light. 

I don't think I mentioned before but the french knots at the centre of the Daisy flowers have been done in two different colours to help increase the depth of colour. It's a subtle variation but it helps to make it look much more three-dimensional.

The total embroidery stitch run down is; straight stitch, bullion knots, couching, back stitch, blanket stitch, french knots and satin stitch. 

I actually really love the backs of these cards though. The reverse of the blanket stitch Daisies reminds me of Dandelion Clocks! Perhaps that would be another good theme to use for a future swap?