March Pond Life Stitchscape Swap

This swap theme is gorgeous, there are no two ways about it. Each month I am just astounded by the creativity of these ladies and the way they have taken a vague idea and turned it into a beautiful scene or image or motif which each have their own little stories, are beautiful with their colours choices, have the most amazing sense of scale and perspective and are just wonderful. 

The theme is Pond Life so it could literally be anything to do with a pond; above it, around it, below it, growing in it, living in it, reflecting off it....anything. 

Sometimes a theme just inspires a person straight away and other times it can take a while for an inkling of an idea to grow. I think I mentioned in my post about my own cards for this swap that I wasn't fantastically inspired to start with, but I suspect that some of these ladies knew exactly what they were going to do with the theme. 

I love the attention to detail with these ducks, the long stems for the water lily and the little water boatmen! It's such an interesting perspective choice as well, to cut through the water with a side view so that you see both into and above the pond. Works fantastically well, and what a brilliant choice of fabric for the water itself with the murky little spots which look like that may not be the duck's first dive down and they may have dislodged a few bits of mud now floating around. 

And Jackie's koi pond quite literally took my breath away! What fantastic and neat stitching for those fish! They are stunning! The water fabric I recognise as she purchased that from me (and you can find it in my Stitchscape shop if you would like some - quick and shameless plug there) but the colours are so bright and happy. Beautiful water lily flowers with three detached chain stitches forming each petal, and the edges with the choice of stitching to look like brickwork just sums up Jackie's careful and beautifully executed work to a tee. (Is it tee, or T?)

To me, these flowers look like water Irises? Anyone else? The mix of machine stitch and hand stitch is really lovely to build up texture, and that bright splash of blue really pops in the darker browns of the surrounding ground. 

Hehe, I love this one with the little ribbeting frogs. I don't think we have frogs anywhere else so it's nice to have them represented. Sarah's bullrushes are fab, made from french knots on long stems - and I love her raised sun as well, really effective. 

Jacquie's card, I think I have mentioned before, is instantly recognisable as hers because of the neat machine stitching around the edge, and also the use of embossed paper motifs which I wonder if she cuts herself on a Cricut machine or similar? I'm not entirely sure which angle we are looking at as it could be taken almost as a side on with the rocks and stems at the bottom of the pond, or a bird's-eye view looking down onto the waterlilies. 

Sam has used the same fabric as me! How funny that we should both have the same fish fabric, although it has only recently come onto the market and does fit perfectly in with the theme so perhaps it isn't all that odd. She has added lots of texture and colour with different yarns around her fish, with those fantastic bullrushes as well. And do you see her bullion knot and organza-winged dragonfly at the top there? Lovely stuff!

This card is so simple, yet so effective, and with brilliant blanket stitch lily pads. It's nice that there are two colours of green used rather than them all being exactly the same, it kind of picks out that pad on the right hand side there. 

Elle's card (below) quite literally shimmered. The gold/green velvet is really lush and then there is a shimmer to the (quite frankly) inspired sequin and bead frogspawn/or fish eggs at the top, and the beaded pond floor at the bottom. The fish are really effective too, as is the snail shell nestled into the gravel at the bottom.

If I could have kept all of these cards I would have! But it is only fair to swap them out to everyone who has sent one in, my spreadsheet demands it anyway. Which one would you have hoped to keep?