Lovers Lane ATCs

February's Stitchscape Swap theme was Lovers Lane and, for the life of me, I can't remember how I came to that as a theme title. It didn't fill me with a huge amount of inspiration, but that is probably a good thing to push my boundaries and make me think more rather than always going with themes that I'm really inspired by. It's only fair. 

I had a look online to see if I could kick start any inspiration but there wasn't a lot going that spoke to me, and I think in the end the idea came from looking through trees on a bus journey, to make a path through some trees where the branches met in the middle and formed a sort of heart shape. 

I enjoy that the front and back sort of have the same story going on. 

The trees aren't completely heart shaped as I thought that might be a little bit too twee, but there is enough of a curve on each side to think of hearts, and then with the sweet pink fields in the background as well the colours sort of look lovey-dovey so the theme is hinted at. 

I've stitched the trees with blanket stitch, varying the length and spacing so that the blanket stitch becomes both the fabric edging and also a bark texture. The same fabric has been used for every tree but it's quite a bold print which changes shade and has gold elements to it so each tree has its own personality. I didn't want to go too hard on the leaves so they've been made just with some french knots in tapestry yarn to give a canopy over the path. 

Both of the fields have been covered in seed stitch, the light pink one (further away) only has single strand stitches whereas the dark pink (closer) has two strand to visibly make it appear closer. I don't really know what kind of pink flower would be grown in that quantity in a field...any ideas?

I was given a really fun tin of things from a lady whose friend had sadly passed and she had been entrusted in giving her friend's stash to good homes and this tin was full of green threads and textured fabrics. The fun yarn/thread edging the top of the path came from the tin and has a slight silkiness to it which contrasts with the matte green of the tapestry yarns (also from the tin). In fact, I think the lighter green thread edging the path on both sides is from the tin, as is the crinkled fabric I've used at the front to be bushes - thank you very much to that lady for thinking of me, I hope that you and your friend will appreciate how these threads and bits are being used!

The path has two colours of thread used just in straight stitches across it to build up texture. I've tried to add perspective by using both one and two strands, tailing off the two strands so that by the time you get to the top of the path (further away) it's just single strand stitches, spaced out a bit more as well. I've added in some pebbles with little two strand, one or two twist french knots scattered across it. 

The grass next to the path has similar straight stitch lines to kind of keep that movement the same so that the landscape is all travelling together in the same way. 

I have no idea what the fun crinkled fabric is. It has a sort of hand painted look to it and is very crinkled like a kind of taffetta maybe? I have stab stitched this down just to hold it in place, hiding the stitches between the crinkles. Then, to bring down the pink and to add a few more discreet lovey-dovey hearts, I have used detached chain stitches in pairs to make heart flowers growing on the bush. 

Having come from no inspiration for this one at all, I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. It's sweet without being sickly and, hopefully, you might reach the conclusion that it's a lovers lane without it having to be specifically spelled out for you. 

The stitch run down for these cards is; blanket stitch, french knots, bullion knots, seed stitch, couching, straight stitch and detached chain stitch.