Pond Life ATCs

I struggled a little bit with my Pond Life ATCs, just couldn’t think what I wanted to do for them or how would be best to translate the theme. Having just finished the Kasumi Kit you would have thought the inspiration would have struck earlier but it took a while to remember that I actually had fish fabric, which would be the perfect thing! 

I had my little helper come and make sure that the finished cards were up to scratch of course, he checked them over very thoroughly and counted the fish for me to ensure none had escaped. He really is getting very helpful. 

The scale of the fish only allowed one koi per card which does make them look a little bit lonely I suppose but it left me lots of room for fun textures. As well as the four fabric prints, I laid over sections of cotton scrim which matched perfectly in terms of colour. It helped to give a more pondweed/mossy look without having to actually stitch it, although I then added picot stitches on the edge of the scrim, mostly where it overlaps the water to look like ferns or similar. It did definitely remind me why I don’t often do picot stitches, they are such a faff and get tangled up in each other and the scrim edges…some bits are distinctly fluffy where the scrim ends have got woven in as well but I’m using that as part of the wild untamed look and just going along with it. 

The view of them is a birds eye one so they can be looked at either way up. The fabric with the curvy print has been stitched on one side of each printed curved stripe line with stem stitch, using a really thin Perlé thread that has a slightly different texture to the stranded cottons. I did experiment with stitching on both sides of the curve pattern but it was too much and didn’t allow for breathing space so I’ve just shadowed one edge. 

There is a really lovely rosebud ric rac trimming on the raw edge next to this (bought from the-stitchery in Lewes), apart from on one of the cards where I have accidentally stitched it to a different edge, can you spot it?

I actually stitched all of my texture layers first, with the fish layer being the last to be stitched. The mosaic looking print just has a single back stitch around each shape to lift those blocks and add a texture, and the blue droplets have been satin stitched following the direction of the droplet shape. One of the fabric edges is made up of a row of bullion knots, and the other edge is twisted Starmist metallic crochet yarn and DMC Eco Vita thread which has a slight woolliness to it. 

Anytime I had any leftover ends of green thread for any part of the stitching I added French knots to the main section of scrim to break it up, although at the end I did go back with the Eco Vita thread and put more on as well. 

The fish were stitched in the same way I’d done on my Kasumi Koi kit Stitchscape - satin stitch on the patches of colour down the fish and a single strand whipped back stitch around the outline of the fish with a one strand, one twist French knot for each eye. 

The lily pads have been blanket stitched, following the direction of the lines within the print, and the water lily flowers have been detached chain stitch, picking up on where there are shaded areas in the print and using two different shades of white for the petals. I’ve also worked some simple rounds of running stitch around the pads and edges in the water to give a slight ripple or running water effect. 

I think the picot stitches, where they overlap and cast shadows over the water fabric have really helped to give these cards a three dimensional appearance. It would have perhaps been nice to do more, or to mingle in some drizzle stitches, or other more 3D stitches but the cards do need to be flat enough to post as a normal letter so they are restricted in height. 

The total stitch run down for these cards is; stem stitch, couching, blanket stitch, whipped back stitch, French knots, bullion knots, picot stitch, satin stitch, back stitch, running stitch and detached chain stitch.