Gilding the Lily...

....or in this case; the pansy. This is the first stage of the embellishment. For those who haven't got any embroidery books at home, I'm going to link the names of stitches to Sharon B's wonderful stitch dictionary. The black Chevron stitch on the seam between 1 and 2 was made with two strands of embroidery cotton. This has been overlaid with Fly stitch in some shiny orange rayon thread with a tight twist, and topped with Lazy Daisy stitches with one strand of embroidery cotton from a hank I space dyed in shades of yellow. I shall probably refer to home dyed threads quite often, as I enjoy using them. Some are the result of a day spent playing with a variety of different types of thread and three tiny pots of Dylon cold water dye in a red, a blue and a yellow, others are made using fabric painting felt tips on damp thread, ironed dry to set the colour....but that's a story for another day...

I haven't done anything along the seam between 1 and 3 because it is only a small patch, and I have chosen to fill it with a pattern. Here you can see how far I have done, making stars with two strands of space dyed tan floss. This will be added to at a later stage.


Next you can see the green Feather stitch vine curving up and over the right hand side of the heart. I have tried to match the green of the stem to the green of the pansy leaf. It needed to be darker for an exact match, but I used two strands of the closest green embroidery floss that I had. The leaves/flowers, I haven't decided which yet, are Lazy Daisy stitches made with a double strand of home dyed rayon. This is a complete pain in the backside to sew with, as it has no twist at all, and is composed of many, many very fine strands that fuzz up in no time at all, but it has such a wonderful shine, and takes colour so easily, that it makes up for all the swearing. The space dying of the thread, combined with the use of two strands together leads to a wonderful variation in the colouring that I think brings it to life.

I haven't decided how I shall continue with this, but I may do something like this next picture. Having a good margin around your heart gives you a space to experiment with colours and stitches...
I have used the shiny orange rayon twist to place three Buttonhole fans along the seam of patch 5. More stitches may be added later. The seam treatment between 1 and 4 is a simple shaped Herringbone, first in black, then overlaid with a space dyed peach, each stitch just to the left of the black stitch. To mark the curve I have stitched, I used a strip of micropore tape cut to shape. I love this tape; it stays where it is put, but peels off without leaving a mark. I use straight strips with measured out pencil dots as a guide to keep my stitches even when that is needed. I shall probably add to this at a later stage, but for now I have to decide what to do with that patch of pale yellow shirt on the left. It is too glaringly light at the moment. Do I extend the Herringbone seam? Do I enlarge on the fan? Do I add an embroidered motif or a scrap of lace? A cluster of buttons or beads? Decisions, decisions....I may be gone some time, so don't wait up....I might not come back until next year...