Nether Wallop Stitchscape

 

I don't like to abandon Stitchscapes. There's just something about them that makes me want to keep going and trying different things on it until I think they work. This hoop started out as the first draft for the Harvest Sun Stitchscape kit but quite quickly I decided that there were things about it I wasn't happy with - and I only put forward hoops I really love as kits. 

The bits that I wasn't loving was the double use of the green abstract floral pattern (I was initially thinking that I'd try and show how you could do different techniques on them to change up the pattern) and the rows of fly stitch on the wheat field - plus the way that colour kind of stood out on its own without much balancing going on.  The fly stitch rows weren't even enough and I was struggling to make the stitch ends meet like I wanted so, if I was not happy with how I'd done a layer, then I can't ask complete stitching beginners to try the same thing!

The hoop was set aside and, as you'll see if you click on the Harvest Sun blog post here, I ended up adding in several more fabrics, increasing the layers but also balancing them better. The only thing I lost by adding in more fabrics was the space that this initial hoop had for the sun and sun rays. 

The half finished hoop sat all forlorn for several months, until I needed a new bus project and picked it up again. There is a lot less pressure when I'm stitching a hoop just for myself and I can use up odds and ends of threads without writing down the colour, or blur and blend more colours together at will. 

The sun body had already been stitched as part of the kit but I hadn't done the rays and I actually completed that part last, although I'll talk about it first I suppose. There are at least four colours used in the sun rays, mixing up one or two strands and changing the length of the stitches. I was using up some yellows I had, as well as trying to bring in yellows from other areas of the hoop - so that kind of dark golden yellow in the wheat field to help balance that a bit more. I've also added in straight stitches in a single strand of metallic gold just because it's so pretty! I haven't done that in the final Harvest Sun kit but I'm fairly sure that I've advised to go back to the sun once the rest of the layers have been stitched and add in more yellows to build it up, so if you happen to have some gold thread, by all means add that in to yours too. 

The rays ended up almost completely covering the blue fabric layer in the end so I needn't have bothered stitching it really, but it was covered with rows of single strand running stitch which you can kind of see peeking through. The lines followed the edges of the sun and the green mountains below so it had lots of swirly bits which looked like wind whooshing past. 

The left green mountain is a linen texture print so has subtle lines to look like a fabric weave in and I've accentuated these with single strand cross hatched straight stitches, working both directions at once so they interlock together. The fabric is edged with that gorgeous tiny tiny ric rac and I've stitched over it (couched) between the 'v' shapes with one direction one colour and the other direction in another colour. The thread colours are the same as those used in the fabric layer so the darker colour is the straight stitches and the lighter colour is also the french knots I've scattered across the top. (This part was for the kit so I'm limiting my colours used here.)

I very rarely plan my Stitchscapes - even for kits - and just try to see where the fabrics take me. It isn't always immediate and in this case one of the niggling feelings that this wasn't going to completely work as a kit was that I couldn't finish layers. I could fill them in with a stitch but didn't know how I was going to edge them, or vice versa. The big mountain on the right hand side I'd filled in with the straight stitches worked within the petal shadows in the pattern, but I hadn't edge it or finished it much further than that. After some thought, I added single strand running stitch around those flower shapes, used a lovely soft yarn that I happily discovered in a forgotten wool basket around the time I was working on the hoop to be the couched on edge, and popped little french knots into the centre of each flower. 

The next green layer down is the same fabric, and I was initially going to be very different in my stitching approach, but I found myself stitching the same technique but in a more matching colour to the fabric, and in two strands to make the stitches heavier. I think I could have approached this more differently and I'm not quite sure what my fingers were thinking but I've rolled with it. Alternative options would be to cover it with seed stitches and ignore the pattern, you could also then work vertical whip stitch over the seed stitches. Or I could not have done running stitch on the layer above and done rows of those instead. Anyhow, it is done and I didn't want to undo it so I've edged it with bullion knots and left it alone. 

Please don't look too closely at my wheat field. The stitching really is very bad. It started out beautifully on the right hand side with the wider area, curving the line to follow the shape of the hoop, but the more rows I worked, the more it all kind of fell apart - if I had drawn it out first it would have been a lot better but I was free-handing it and wasn't careful enough with my spacing. The narrowing shape and the curve also didn't help but I persevered, covered my raggedy fabric edge with french knots in the same colour and added two twist french knots in red to be my poppies. 

For my lovely little floral ditsy print on green, I've worked whipped back stitch along the long winding stems, a single straight stitch in each leaf and then straight stitches in the daisy petals and a big yellow french knot in the centre. The two green threads I've used were also then put together and couched along the edging to finish the layer. 

The bottom daisy layer I don't like as much as my second attempt I don't think. I've used two strands of stranded cotton and alternated the daisies to either be white or pale blue (to balance the sky), making detached chain stitches over the pattern of the petals themselves. Where I've got the really tiny daisies, I used a silvery blue colour to fill in the petals with a couple of straight stitches - not quite enough to be a satin stitch - so they looked a bit more bud-like. The yellow french knot centres are also a slightly different yellow, lighter yellow on the blue and darker on white. 

Around those I've taken more of the fluffy yarn I found to edge that top mountain, folded it and stitched it into grassy clumps, then added pistil stitches over the top to tame the wildness somewhat. Dark green tapestry yarn was added at the bottom in chunky french knots to give it more of a ground surface, and then beads added to help balance the slight sparkle of the metallic sun. 

My total stitch run down for this Harvest Sun reject - now called Nether Wallop because I really like that village name! - is; bullion knots, straight stitch, running stitch, seed stitch, french knots, couching, fly stitch, whipped back stitch, pistil stitch, detached chain stitch and beading.

So I'd love to know if you agreed with my stopping and starting again. Are there parts of the first version that you prefer over the second?

If I were to do a third version (which is unlikely), I would probably change the shape of the second mountain so that I could have more of a sun showing as I do like the rays and the big sun on the first design. I do prefer the colour balancing and layering on the second though, and the thread on the daisies is much brighter with the coton a broder thread and beads.