Stitching Idyllic: Hand Stitch Recognizable Summer Flowers

Ann Bernard

Description

Stitching a Summer Garden to Life

Whether you are a novice or veteran stitcher, Summer Flowers will help you bring your vision to life. Beginning with backgrounds, you will learn how create the perfect setting for your idyllic tableau.

Then using just 10 familiar stitches, you will learn how to hand stitch 23 distinct and lovely plants and flowers.

Topics covered include printing photos on fabric to create beautiful layouts, ideas and instructions on how to make your project ready for framing, and step-by step demonstrations on how to bring it all together.

And there's also Funtasy Flowers, where you can learn how to incorporate store-bought silk flowers into your own wonderful and unique creation.

Ann Bernard trained at the Royal School of Needlework and has a lifetime of stitching experience and tips to share. Her approach makes stitching fun with detailed directions and diagrams, even photos of both real and stitched plants, which guide you every step of the way.

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Couture et Tricot
• Hobbies
• Crafts
• Needlework

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 23 juin 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781456626655
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Stitching Idyllic
 
 
Summer Flowers
 
 
Hand-stitch recognizable Summer Flowers
 
 
Introducing Silk Flower Conversion and Funtasy Flowers
 
 
Ann Bernard, 2014
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
http://Stitchingidyllic.blogspot.ca
www.annbernard.com
[e-mail]

Copyright 2014 Ann Bernard,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 9781456626655
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

 
 
 
Dedication
 
 
This book is dedicated to
 
St Clare of Assisi, the patron saint of embroiderers
 
and to the stitching communities
 
stitchinfingers.com
 
needlenthread.com
 
pintangle.com
 
 
Thank you to Mary Corbet and Sharon Boggon for creating these communities
which give us all incentive, space and a voice.
ANN BERNARD'S STITCHING BIOGRAPHY
Ann learned to stitch at her grandmother's knee progressing to win, at the age of 10, an adult first prize at the Cartmel Fair in Cumbria, in the north of England. From that point she was hooked permanently. Ann attended the Royal School of Needlework in the 1950s and went on to become an Occupational Therapist before emigrating to Canada. In later years, she treated those in need of specialized rehabilitation. As a member of the Toronto Guild of Stitchery, Ann worked on the Toronto Historical Embroidery and is a member of the Embroiderers' Association of Canada (EAC). Since moving to Guelph, she has joined the Canadian Embroiders’ Guild, Guelph. Ann is married, has three children and a grandson.
 

She has taught classes in Traditional and Contemporary Crewel Work, Contemporary Goldwork and Creative Surface Stitchery. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and the United States and she has been a recipient of the EAC's Leonida Leatherdale Award. Her greatest thrill is when her students try new techniques and when they win awards for their efforts.
 
Although a well educated and experienced stitcher, she finds computers and digital cameras a challenge but tried to be more professional this time. Writing a book is another challenge. She has done her best to establish clarity in text, diagrams and photos. The stitches are basic and the techniques are designed to be within the abilities of beginner stitchers while more experienced stitchers will find the material a starting point to even more creativity. Guidance in creating a garden that is uniquely your own is included.
 
Stitching Spring Flowers was accepted beyond her expectations and this book on stitching Summer Flowers is not only an extension of the seasons but also a technical sequel. It introduces a new stitching concept with Silk Flower Conversion. This leads to Funtasy Flowers which is a concept that textile artists will enjoy.
 
Please respect copyright and purchase a new copy for a friend rather than copying or lending yours.
 
Thank you,
 
Ann Bernard
Introduction to Stitching Recognizable Summer Flowers
 
Spring Flowers proved to be a stitchable project. Summer flowers presented all sorts of problems for hand embroidery. Summer is a time of profusion in the garden, farm, fields, and forest. This profusion gives us the bountiful harvests on which human life depends. Bless it forever. Look around your garden or at some photographs. You will notice that almost every plant has dozens of stems or stalks, often many dozens of flowers and hundreds of leaves. Summer plants are dense, colourful and profuse. Browsing the books in my library, I noticed that stitchers usually choose to depict a spray from a plant, such as can be cut and brought into the house and placed in a vase. Or, the flower is stitched as a botanical specimen. The flower is depicted in accurate and beautiful stitching. Satin stitch, Thread Painting and Long and Short stitch are the most commonly used for this though other techniques such as Ribbon Embroidery and Stump work are also used. These 'flower selective' results are gorgeous but they do not indicate the profusion that exists out in the garden. Other creative stitchers have created swathes and layers of coloured fabric for a vista. These are gorgeous, the colour is usually wonderful but the identity of the flowers is questionable or indicated in the text. Yes, I love these vistas of gold and purple, umber and green but they are not what I have been trying to capture with my needle and thread. My stitching mind has been seeking to find out how to produce recognizable plants and flowers in the profusion of a garden.
 
Before moving on to solutions, let me tell you that after 16 attempts with different stitches just to find a generic way to indicate stalks and leaves has led to frustration, procrastination and minimal success.
 
The border plants such as Alyssum, Impatience, even Portulaca, were not too difficult but these are all foot level plants whereas a summer garden has mid-sized plants such as Shasta Daisies and a lot of really tall ones like Hollyhocks. The form of each one is so different that on finally deciding on a generic stitch for all the greenery, I found that it was only appropriate for a minimum of plants. Look at the leaf forms of Hollyhocks and of Lupins. They have little in common and each one needs individual consideration. Unless the botanical form of a plant is accurately portrayed and the form and colour of the flowers and leaves is also accurate, the eye will not identify the plant. They become, 'loverly pink flowers but I am not really sure what they are!' Another problem arose in that flowers such as Oriental Poppies have very large petals. Yes, these are an ideal subject for Long and Short stitch but in profusion in a garden, how does one portray them in an identifiable manner without undertaking Long and Short stitch using a microscope.
 
Necessity and frustration led the way and the result is Silk Flower Conversion. This technique is appropriate for flowers with large flat petals such as Clematis and Hibiscus. You will find this technique in the latter part of this book.
 
The first part of the text will give you the information you need to stitch many summer flowers using hand embroidery techniques. A moderate number of different stitches are used and the directions are included plus how to modify them to achieve special effects.
 
Included in this text are the directions for several ways to create a background for the flowers. There are books already published on other ways to create scenes from nature and I refer you to them. Add that information together with how to stitch individual flowers and then be creative in your own way. Instead, I have focused more on how to achieve backgrounds easily and fairly quickly. The background is the backdrop for the flowers rather than being the purpose of the composition. The reason for publishing this now is that I am no longer on the young edge of old age and I think it wiser to complete and publish what I have already created rather than wait for further inspiration to strike. Or not strike, which is a strong possibility.
 
The most basic and simplest of stitches and techniques are used so that everyone, no matter their skills or experience, can achieve their goals. More experienced stitchers can use this information to create and develop results far beyond what is covered in this book. The materials used are basic and readily available. That is: quilting cotton (medium thread count white cotton) and DMC Floss threads. If you have embroidery fabrics such as linen available then use them and enjoy stitching on fabric that is more suited to embroidery. I used Cashel and Belfast linen but it would be preferable to use a linen with a higher thread count. Do not be tempted to use cotton sheeting as the thread count is too high making it difficult to pierce with a needle.
 
The plants and flowers have to be recognizable in that the growth pattern, the shapes of the leaves and flowers have to be congruent with nature. Although it is impossible to stitch a total likeness to a 'real flower' using needle and thread, your rendition should be faithful to the intentions of mother nature and be recognizable.
 
The colours of the stalks, leaves and flowers must be accurate. Without this accuracy, the eye will not recognize the plants and identify them.
 
We are all very different people and stitch - be creative - in many different ways. Copying is alright but following your own creative urge is better. This book is a structure on which to grow your own garden. The more different it is from this, the better. Be as creative as you wish. This may sound like a contradiction to the thread colour recipes and the gardens featured in this book. Take this foundation and express it in your own way.
 
But first it is necessary to prepare background fabric properly. Without this you are wasting your time and talents especially if you are creating an item that might be destined for posterity. Even if you do not envisage your creation being hung in a museum 300 years hence, preparing your fabric properly will save you much stitching frustration and give you a far better completed product. You will be glad that you took the time to do this well.
 
This form of embroidery is called Creative Surface Stitchery.
 
Wishing you Happy Stitching and a result to be proud of.
 
 
Ann Bernard
A Summary On Hand Stitching Recognizable Summer Flowers Using Creative Surface Stitchery
 
The focus of the first section is the background for the flowers. Both the front fabric and the backing fabric are discussed. In Spring Flowers we used batik cotton but for Summer Flowers we have been more enterprising and there are several ways of creating interesting backgrounds.
 
As photo-printing o