Growing a Harvest

 

I started designing this kit in September last year - but this is actually the second hoop because if you look back on that post introducing the idea of this kit, there are less fabrics in it!

I got a few layers in on the first draft and decided that it wasn't working, so went back to my stash and pulled out even more fabrics to add - making this kit even more complicated than I had initially planned. 

I wanted to design something that was a bit bigger - the next stage if you like from the current kits I have. Most of them are made in a 15cm hoop but this one is being done in a 20cm hoop and it is loosely based on the first ever kit I designed, Summer Sweet! I don't currently have a summery kit in my range really and it has been missing so it will be interesting to see how this one goes. 

I've been going a bit all over the place stitching these layers as I'm trying to balance colours and not go completely crazy with the thread colours - it does have to be fairly affordable! At the moment each layer is almost it's own entity and own project. It's felt a bit like making one of those monthly magazine quilts where you have a square a month to stitch and put together. Each layer has it's own set of stitches which can take quite a long time, but then when you see it next to the next layer, the story of the whole landscape builds up (like putting the quilt blocks together at the end). 

I'm afraid it hasn't been happening very fast so I've been forcing myself to take it everywhere with me in a box with the book to write down all of the stitch information, ruler to make sure I'm measuring how much thread is used and every thread I have or want to use in the kit. I'm slightly dreading getting to the end and having to write up the instructions as they were starting to get a bit scribbly with lines everywhere. It'll be a big kit! Perhaps this one I'll have to print in A4 rather than A5, and name it the BIG kit!

I like how it's going though, it's got three types of thread in so far; stranded cotton embroidery thread, tapisserie yarn (the woolly looking stuff) and coton a broder which is new to me but seems to be a thinner cotton perle with less of an obvious twist to it. There's a gorgeous tiny ric rac and a really nice cotton lace as well as two different colours of beads so it's got a lot going on. 

just the stems at the bottom to finish off I think and then it's there.