I am stitching up this cherry blossoms and lanterns motif from the Cherry Blossom embroidery set.
I have been trying out a few color combinations:
So far, a lot of pinks and white! Plus a reddish brown for the cherry tree branch. All easy - it may be a bit more of a challenge to find just the right colors for these lanterns:
The next stitch on my list to learn is the Brick Stitch. This is a filling stitch, made up of vertical Straight Stitches. While very simple to do, it is not so simple to keep the stitches evenly spaced. I found that drawing guidelines was very helpful.
I drew horizontal lines about 1/4" apart:
This stitch is worked both from left to right and right to left. The first step is to come up through the fabric at the left edge of the third horizontal guide line and go back onto the fabric on the first horizontal line, forming the first Straight Stitch. I just repeated these all along the lines:
Next, to start back working from right to left, I came up through the fabric on the right edge of the second horizontal line and went back into the fabric on the fourth line:
I worked my way to the left edge. To start again working left to right, I came up through the fabric right below the third horizontal line and went back into the fabric on the fifth line:
I just repeated this spacing for the next right to left and final left to right.
I learned this stitch from the book Embroidery Stitches by Mary Webb.
This Valentine table napkin is made from two motifs from the Be Mine Valentine embroidery set.
I combined the cupid's arrow heart with the XO text:
and transferred them to a white cotton table napkin using a water soluble marking pen:
The text and the arrow shaft are all done with Back Stitch. The arrow point is Satin Stitch. The heart is filled with French Knots.
