Multiple Fire Flowers

We have been blessed with several absolutely fantastic sunsets this last couple of weeks. If it weren't for a nippy wind that brings the temperature on the balcony down to what feels like freezing, then I would be sat outside every evening (once the baby was in bed and the chores done) to stitch and watch the sun go down in a blaze of fiery colours. 

My other half laughs at me because I get so excited by the view, which we are very fortunate to see from our kitchen/living area and the fire escape balcony that leads off of it. This whole half of our flat gets filled with deep orange or pink light for about 15 minutes a day as the sun has a last minute peek through our windows. The colours change constantly and the sky is still full of amazing pinks and purples even after the sun has dipped below the horizon. 

It's all been brilliant inspiration to have whilst stitching the re-model of my Fire Flower kit. Due to the bottom floral fabric being discontinued by the supplier I'm re-working it and updating the kit booklet. The patterns are very different from each other as I haven't been able to find something more similar that I can get hold of in bulk which means I have had to re-count how much thread each section needs and will have to change the instruction booklet as well to include new stitch diagrams and information. 

When I re-do an existing kit (and in this case I am re-making it because it is the only kit in this colour combination and has been my second all-time best seller so I'm upset about losing it!) I do use the templates and see whether I still like them. I wanted to try and improve the original design though so I actually made the sun a circular shape, rather than the half circle of before, and initially tried raising it so that more sun was visible. I've also changed where the two trimmings are in the piece, using the 2mm cord to edge that sun shape as opposed to edging it with bullion knots, and lowering the lace to where the cord used to be. 

Sun rays are fairly mathematical and it can look very odd if you try to guess the direction of the ray and work around the circle shape. It uses more thread but looks much better on the front if you block in your quarters, eighths, sixteenths etc and then fill in those gaps. I would recommend actually drawing little guide lines on the back of your calico too to keep you in check. 

These photos were taken several weeks ago now (my blogging is very behind!) when I was able to be out on the balcony one evening. I was experimenting with bringing in more of the purple colouring on the bottom layer. The previous Fire Flower also had purple in the floral layer but I had ignored it and focused on the oranges, letting the purple stay in the fabric print only. This time I thought I'd give a go at bringing it in, matching those purples that end up in the sky after a sunset. 

The old fabric had also included a fair amount of red so I tried bringing that in to some of those daisy flowers in the new piece but I have to admit it wasn't singing to me like the old one did. 

After a creative discussion with The Mother to get her opinion, we decided that actually it wasn't working and I would have to start again (the penalty for not planning anything beforehand). She suggested less sun and more mountains, and pointed out that the top half of the hoop was so much more orange than the previous design, which had sort of got an ombre thing going on with the white and orange stripe bridging the white polka dot fabric and the bright orange floral background layers. I had also made the sun rays darker and orange which then blended in too much with the background so it was kind of lost. All very good points!

So, I started again completely from scratch, still using my new circular sun shape but making the grey polka dot mountains much taller to hide the sun behind. The benefit of keeping the sun circular is that then when everyone makes their own version, they can choose how much sunshine to include, plus it also makes the shape a little bit more realistic. 

So, this is what the second hoop ended up like! I've just used a running stitch across the white polka dot layer rather than fill each dot with satin stitch because I have had some comments that it's hard to see or too small an area to work on each time which is fair enough. The first re-draft didn't have any bullion knots in at all so I've addressed that by edging this layer with white bullion knots (we can't possibly have a kit that doesn't have a bullion in it!!). 

The orange layer underneath I've actually done the same as the original FF kit but, rather than following the stripe lines and stitching lines in orange, I've taken that ombre idea The Mother mentioned and made my own stripes in white across the layer. It helps drag down that paler colouring and means you can actually see the layer itself now which is better. I've edged it with french knots for texture. 

The orange floral layer underneath is pretty much the same, using seed stitch to add texture across the layer and, because these stitches have been taken over the edge of the fabric, it hasn't been edged again so that's a nice quick layer to work on!

The sun is also similar, using whipped back stitch to create the floral stems and french knots to add in the bud flowers. Running stitches go around the edge of the sun where required to hold that fabric down, and the cord couched around the edge. The sunrays still use the two colours of coton perle thread as I like to include different types of thread in the kits, as well as a yellow stranded cotton to make it slightly less orange and stand out from the background more. 

The grey polka dot fabric is the same as before with alternate single and double strand back stitch worked diagonally between the spots in both directions. Rather than edging it with the lace, which is a fairly solid lace that doesn't take kindly to changing direction a lot, I've used several strands of embroidery floss and couched it to the edge to create a nice solid line. 

As I've previously mentioned the lace has then been moved down a layer from the original because that was a fairly flat line and the lace sits more comfortably on the fabric. 

I decided in the end not to use the purple thread and to again let the purple just be on the fabric rather than picking it out. It still looks nice there but the whole hoop works more cohesively together if I'm just pulling out the oranges. Rather than turn some of the flowers into the red colour I previously used all of the flowers have been done in two orange colours but filled with either a red or a dark grey french knot for the centre. Any gaps between the flowers that stand out have now got little yellow french knots scattered through. 

Because the fabric pattern is fairly wishy-washy, you can make the flowers wherever you like really. Not all of the colour blocks work into a flower shape, and some you sort of have to draw a flower using the detached chain stitches out of a random splodge but it will all help to make each Stitchscape unique to you. I have taken these flowers over the edge of the lace too where applicable. 

Finally, as before, I wanted to bring some orange up into that dark grey layer - especially now it's much bigger than before. I have used the dark grey to make clusters of straight stitch stems where there are gaps between the daisy flowers, and then topped them with french knots made from coton perle thread so they are thicker than the others and stand out more. The colours of this hoop are fantastically vibrant and I'm debating whether I love it more than the original Fire Flower. 

I'll leave it to you to decide - which do you prefer? Or do you like them both in their own way?

There are still some of the original Fire Flower kits available in my Etsy/Web shops and with my stockists. If you would rather hang on for the new one I still have the booklet to write up which I'm hoping will be quicker than usual as I can re-use some of the diagrams and wording from the original one. I will of course let you know when it's available!