Sunflower Colors

The beautiful weather we have had this summer has been nice!  I have enjoyed it so much, especially with this sweet friend:

Rego

I do love to see what blooms this time of year, my sunflowers:

white dahlia:

I have also enjoyed home grown tomatoes!

All these beautiful colors are making me think of some sunflower projects I would like to stitch:

100 Stitches - long and short stitch

This sunflower features the new stitch I have just learned on the 100 Stitches project. The stitch is called the long and short stitch. This is such an easy stitch! To demonstrate I am using six strands of dmc #907 floss, a #24 chenille needle, and 100% cotton quilting weight fabric. I transferred this little sunflower embellishment from the Peep-Peep-Peep Embroidery Pattern Packet:
To start, you bring your needle up through the fabric
and then back down, forming a simple stitch. I made this stitch a little long so it is the long stitch of "long and short" stitch:

Now come back up through the fabric next to your long stitch

and take a smaller "short" stitch!

Now come back up

and make another long stitch

You just continue doing this in stitches of varying lengths

until you fill in the shape! According to 100 Stitches, this is an excellent filling stitch and is sometimes referred to as a form of the satin stitch.

100 Stitches also mentioned that this is a good stitch to use to achieve a shaded effect which is what I have done on the sunflower petals:

Really a fun stitch to do and so quick to learn! This stitch is #9 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

100 stitches - cross stitch

I stitched this hen picture long before I started working through 100 Stitches. I wanted to stitch a frame around the image and really liked the way these "x-es" looked. I didn't realize I was actually doing the cross stitch!
These x-es are individual cross stitches, but the 100 stitches book only demonstrates doing the cross stitch in a line. The following pictures are my step by step attempt at the cross stitch in a line. I am starting with six strands of floss - dmc color #907, using a #24 chenille needle on 100% cotton quilting weight fabric.

I will be working this stitch from right to left. First come up through the fabric at what will be the bottom right of what will be the first "x":

Next, go back down through the fabric at what will be the top left of the "x".

Pull the floss all the way through to form a simple stitch. Now come back up through the fabric at what will be the bottom right of the NEXT "x":

Now go back down through the fabric at what will be the top left of the next "x":

Pull the floss through to form the next stitch:

Continue on in this fashion for as long as you want your stitching line. When you reach the end, it is time to stitch back to the beginning to complete all the x-es! To do this, first come up through the fabric at the bottom LEFT of the end of your stitching line:

then cross over that simple stitch and bring your needle back into the fabric at the top right

Pull the floss through and this will form an x:

Next, bring your needle up at the bottom left (right next to the bottom right of the first completed x. Then back down through at the next top right:

Keep on in this fashion until you are back to the start of the stitching line:

You will end up with a beautiful line of the cross stitch!

This impressive and versatile stitch is #19 and is in the flat stitches section of 100 Stitches.

"Peep-Peep-Peep" Embroidery Pattern Packet

I have finished the hen and chick embroidery pattern...I decided that "Peep-Peep-Peep" was a better name than "Cluck-Cluck-Cluck"! These
are really fun images to stitch.