Purple Flower Embroidery

I so enjoyed doing embroidery again that I went out and bought some 4" and 6" hoops.  I liked the way it looked on denim and as I still have a massive pile of denim scraps I've used that as my base fabric.

I love the flower! I used buttonhole wheel stitch for it, with black French knots at the centre.  I'm still working out how best to do leaves so there are quite a few different versions here.  But from where I started (bottom right leaf) I can definitely see a lot of improvement by the time I got to the last leaf.  I also like my attempts at a palm-like frond and a pine leaves.  I used an open leaf stitch for both.  The leaf clusters are simply lazy daisy stitches on a stem. 

These little projects are so much fun.  I see more embroidery in my future!  The 4" hoops are very portable and stitch up quickly enough to satisfy my impatient nature.  I'd like to try some different subjects like birds and butterflies as well as more florals of course.  I might even try my hand at designing a little project.

Back to My Roots

The very first needlecraft I tried was knitting.  My mum taught me how to cast on and knit a scarf when I was about 6 or 7.  When I went off to school at 8 I learnt sewing and embroidery and I really loved both.  However they both fell by the wayside.  Then around 2013 I took embroidery back up and practised on and off for about three years.  When I started I only knew how to chain stitch, but thanks to sites like Mary Corbet's Needle N Thread and PinTangle I learnt a whole range of different stitches.  But then I discovered papercrafting and my needlecrafts were all but forgotten. Until now!

I've been seeing a lot of really amazing embroidery via Instagram and Tumblr for a while now and thinking how great it would be to be able to create such loveliness.  On a completely different note I was cutting up some old jeans to turn into some sort of patchwork thing and noticed that a) the denim was quite soft and would be relatively easy to embroider, and b) the scrap I had was the perfect size for a 4" hoop.  And, being the craft stash junkie that I am, obviously I have a hoard of embroidery threads and needles just sitting there waiting to be used.  So with the stars thus aligned I started my first piece of embroidery for several years, and it was a real joy.  It took me quite a while for such a small piece, probably a whole day altogether. (Is that long for something like this?  I have no idea.)  Anyway I had fun and I hope it's not such a long time time before I feel moved to stitch again.