Still Reflections

The end of a year often brings lots of reflection on what happened in the months before so it seemed a good theme name for the last ATC swap of 2023. 

The different interpretations could include watery reflections like puddles, rivers, ponds or the sea, shiny reflections like glass windows, glasses, mirrors or metallic baubles (considering the December timing), or perhaps something more abstract.  Personally, I've really enjoyed working on some watery landscapes lately and have had great fun trying out different ways to represent the reflection of trees and skylines so that's what came to my mind when I was working through ideas for this. 

I wanted to keep it quite wintry feeling though so the colours are very pale and muted; light greys, pale yellows and dark evergreens. I'm aware that the chances of waterlilies flowering in the winter are slim to none, but I'm taking some artistic licence on that because the water needed something else to make it....well...more watery!

On the top fabric layer I have lightly added back stitch in a single strand of pale yellow where the watermark batik changes colour. It was a perfect fabric for the sky here and each card is different which, as you know, is always something I strive for if I can. The dark green really contrasts nicely with this colouring and I've edged the green with a simple blanket stitch that blends in, adding a discreet finish and a crisp edge. I often find that in winter the scenery is either muted and wispy when the mists rise, or stark and super clear. 

The trees started out as long, two strand, straight stitches for the trunks and then each of the branches were built up with overlapping fly stitches culminating in two fly stitches at the top of the trunk to finish it. I really love how these look with the simple pared down lines. I was worried about overdoing it but I think that with the business of the pattern behind the trees lots of stitching would just be lost here so keeping the motif of the tree simplified down to separated lines works well. 

The shoreline has been made by using a thin yarn which matches the colour of the fabric but has little flecks of lighter colour in it and I've stitched this down by adding french knots through it rather than couching it first. I've tried to vary the height of the knots so that they aren't in a uniform line and to make them look more natural. 

The reflection of the trees has been made with a single strand of dark green, trying to match the height of the tree above the water. The branches are also simple straight stitches working across just trying to match the width. I've not worried about getting them too straight, it's more of an impression of a reflection rather than an accurate one and too many straight lines start to look calculated. 

I've deliberately stitched the trunk line before the rest of the water so that the lines of wateriness cover the stitch and blur it. 

The water itself has been represented by lines of horizontal straight stitches, varying in length and distance from each other. Of course it had to be in a silver colour to match the colour of the sky and I've used two strands of a regular Anchor embroidery floss and a single strand of a metallic floss which will just catch the light and give a little sparkle without being overpowering. 

It did look like it was missing something, and the design needed an extra layer to help push those reflections back into the water rather than them be the most prominent thing about the bottom half. The waterlilies I have done before in other 'scapes so I've added them here with a rough satin stitch for the pads and rows of three detached chain stitches to make the petals. I've tried to keep a sense of perspective by having one slightly smaller flower behind, with one row of detached chain stitches, and two larger ones at the front with an inner row of chain stitches to fill them out. The further away something is, the less detail you can see in it. 

I couldn't resist joining them all up into one long shoreline. It looks really pretty. 

The stitch round up for these cards is; back stitch, blanket stitch, straight stitch, fly stitch, french knots, satin stitch and detached chain stitch.