Farmyard Friends ATCs

April's Stitchscape Swap theme was Farmyard Friends and I really struggled with this one for some reason. I had initially wanted to make something featuring cows, but couldn't find my chicken or cow fabrics (I've since found them - typical!) so settled on sheep instead, although I feel like I always do things with these sheep and they appear all of the time. 

To make them a little bit different I've gone for different colours (usually they get stitched just in white)! More natural coloured sheep in browns and light greys - the next step might be to do those multicoloured spotty sheep and mix up colours in one sheep rather than giving them a solid coloured fleece. 

I've chosen fabrics which reminded me of hay bales or wheatfields with ploughed elements, without trying to make it seem so obvious. The top layer is just a linen texture green fabric and I've added a couple of rows of running stitch for some interest there, the next layer down is an alternately striped and kind of floral spot print which I've gone over with back stitch on the stripes (changing it up to use different thicknesses, either one or two strands) and I've added sets of three french knots in the flowers which remind me a lot of haybales left in an orderly fashion on a newly harvested field. 

That fabric has been edged with a slim waxed cotton cord, and the layer beneath it edged with a fun mini looped trimming which fitted in nicely. The fabric has that cross-hatched pattern on it already, with the blank circles so I've copied that exactly with long straight stitches, weaving the stitches in and out as I worked round so that they sort of hold themselves in place (rather than only working one way and then the other which would keep one direction on top all of the time). Again the shape of the circles is reminiscent of hay bales, and the lines of ploughed fields. All very subtle!

It gets less subtle from then on though, the sheep are sheep (french knots and straight stitches) with a french knot edge like a little hedge. The flowers are cup sequins or star stitches with french knot centres and I've popped a blanket stitch along the edge to be a bit fence-like. 

They aren't my favourite cards but I hope that the subtleties help make it look well thought out and not stitched in a slightly disgruntled rush after not being able to find the fabrics I wanted. The sequins, I seem to recall, were added because the card didn't have much oomph to it - perhaps because I'm so used to the sheep? They do look nice though and bring the colour yellow through to the bottom of the card if you are thinking about colour balancing. 

The stitch run down for these cards is; running stitch, couching, back stitch, french knots, straight stitch, seed stitch, star stitch and blanket stitch.