Huzzah! Fire Flower II is here!! I was worried about this kit, as this is such a popular colour combination I didn't want to lose the essence of the design just because one of the original fabrics was not available anymore. There was a pressure (which I put on myself) to make this just as loveable as the first one without losing anything. But it's done, it's put together, it's photographed and it's ready and available for purchase online!!!!
I'm running a test with it though. Etsy, my usual main online shop, charges lots of seller fees and there's a fair amount of unrest within the Etsy community as it seems to have started to place shop funds 'on hold' and not pay the earnings to the seller for 90 days, seemingly at will. So far it hasn't done it to me but I also haven't had any proper Etsy sales for a while so I'm not sure if my products are just no longer desirable, or whether Etsy isn't advertising them (something which we are made to pay for without choice anyway).... or what's going on really.
Ideally I'd like to move my shop completely to my website but it's a risky move as most of my international orders come via Etsy and I doubt they'd find me at all just by Googling. For now though, this Fire Flower II kit is only available on my website! (For which, in all honesty, I also get better rates on as I don't get charged fees on; initial listing, relisting, the fact an item sold, a commission fee, a fee on postage costs, VAT on everything, and anything else they can inexplicably add a fee onto. It's exhausting trying to figure out what the charges are for and how much I actually end up with in the end. If someone buys a kit through an Etsy 'advert' I get charged a huge marketing fee which can cost me up to £5 an item alone, on top of all of those other fees!)
So yes, Fire Flower II is currently only available in my Web Shop (and hopefully with some stockists fairly soon too).
The top half is very similar to the original Fire Flower design, but there is more emphasis on the grey mountains and I like to think that I've improved the sun too - there are certainly more details in the booklet about how to make the sunshine, a whole page dedicated to a step-by-step diagram on it!
The bottom half is where most of the difference lies as the main feature there are the detached chain stitch daisies in two different colours. They interpret the loose design of the fabric below so your placement and petal quantity and size of the flowers etc will be different from mine.
The kit comes with all of the fabrics (backing fabric and six patterned pieces), the threads (both stranded Anchor cotton and DMC coton perle), grey lace and 2mm yellow cord. You will need to have your own embroidery needles and a 15cm embroidery hoop (or add the hoop as an extra to the basket if you'd like me to send you one). This one is really easy for beginners. It does have bullion knots - the marmite stitch - snuck in at the top there but there aren't many and they are partially hidden by the rays so it's up to you if you tackle them. French knots will then be the most common, slightly advanced, stitch but there are diagrams and a description on how to make them, along with every other stitch used, in the booklet as well.
I recently had my Woollydale II kit reviewed by another embroidery artist who was comparing it with a mass produced one she bought from Amazon. Nothing bad was said, she was very nice about it being so high quality but it was interesting being compared to something mass produced and churned out by robots. She ended the review by saying that if you were a complete beginner you might as well buy the Amazon one because it was cheaper and had needles etc in it rather than a lot of money on an expensive but higher quality kit. Which I don't totally agree with. I honestly put so much work and effort into making these kits that I feel almost as if, if you are a beginner, you might be more encouraged to keep going if you are challenged and finish it. For this Fire Flower kit, The Mother said to me, it's just one fabric that needs changing, why bother changing the whole kit and starting again? And the reason was because each layer is instructioned in such a detailed way, it wouldn't work for another fabric, and I might as well take the opportunity to improve where I can based on new experiences in other kits or feedback from customers.
The other reason why I think my kits are better than Amazon ones is because I am a real person, you can contact me if you are stuck or need advice, if the way I haven't explained something in the book isn't clicking and you need a demonstration or a run through. What isn't necessarily printed, but should be absolutely understood at the time of purchase, is that you can come back to me at any time for help or guidance, praise or encouragement, and I'm genuinely delighted when I get sent photos of finished projects. Try and buy that off Amazon!!!
I really hope that you like this alternative version to the first Fire Flower kit and if you make it, do send me a picture and let me know how you found it! (I'll just cheekily leave the link here once more....)
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