Foxglove: Elaine’s Botanicals

Dionne    Embroidery and Crewel     double running stitch, Elaine's botanicals, embroidery, french knots, satin stitch, stem stitch

It’s funny, I always think of Foxgloves as being pinks and coral colours so this palatte surprised me.  I do rather like it, and it would be a great companion piece with the Hollyhock, although I could be having more flashbacks to Grandma’s fairy garden again.  It is, of course, entirely possible my pink and coral visions are of another plant entirely, given my track record with anything containing chorophyll.  Elaine has completed her Foxglove embroidery design with a range of stitches including double running stitch, stem stitch, french knots and pistol stitch.

Rudolph … the red nosed (needlepoint) Reindeer

Dionne    Christmas, Tapestry and Needlepoint     needlepoint, Rudolph, Santa's red nose helper, twill designs

Our favourite reindeer

School holidays are starting again soon.  Weather in September can be so variable.  Got a little someone with itchy feet and bored fingers?  Needlepoint can be a very soothing activity, why not teach them?  Santa’s Red Nose Helper is a simple design from Twill Designs and can be completed in time to add to Christmas decorations.  With only 7 bright and cheery colours, this engaging pattern is of someone we all know and love.  At $29.95, you have all the materials you need to complete the design and a handy pouch to put all the materials away when you are not stitching so everything stays together.

Forget me not: Elaine’s Botanicals

Dionne    Embroidery and Crewel     double running stitch, Elaine's botanicals, embroidery, french knots, lazy daisy, satin stitch, stem stitch

Forget me nots are among my fonder memories of my Grandma, Hazel.  My not so fond memories include her flipping over a little handkerchief that I had embroidered at the age of 5 and informing me “The mark of a true artisan is to have a back as neat as the front” … its ok, I am not in therapy anymore …

Not a fairy in sight

I digress, her greatest gifts to her grandchildren were her cordon bleu cooking skills, mmmm yummy food at Grandma’s … and her fairy gardens.  She always had one.  She lived in three houses in my lifetime, and her best fairy garden was at Boat Harbour at the bottom of her garden at the end of a little winding path.  There, forget me nots, foxgloves and bluebells grew with abandon.  They are the flowers I remember clearly, I am sure there were more.  Elaine’s Botanicals Forget me not is simple and yet it features a variety of embroidery stitches; double running stitch, french knots, lazy daisy stitch, satin stitch and stem stitch.

Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies: Our August Book of the Month

Dionne    Book of the Month, Embroidery and Crewel     cicely Mary Barker, di van niekerk, embroidery, Flower fairies, flower fairies in ribbon embroidery & stumpwork, stumpwork

Who doesn’t love a fairy?  We love this book!  I have never done Ribbon Embroidery, … and I am a bit scared of Stumpwork, especially with Jane Nicholas living just down the road.  When Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies™ in Ribbon Embroidery & Stumpwork arrived in store, Kerry and I were drooling.  This book is truly breathtaking.  There are five Flower Fairies™ taught; Periwinkle Fairy, Black Medick Fairies, White Clover Fairy, Stork’s Bill Fairy and the Red Clover Fairy.  We don’t stock everything you will need, some items will need to be sourced elsewhere.  We just fell in love with it and keep it in stock because it makes us happy every time we look at it.

Di Van Niekerk has made these lovely designs accessible to stitchers in a ribbon embroidery and stumpwork mixed media.  While we try hard to recommend books that have something for everyone, this may be a little a daunting for a novice or someone seriously time challenged like me, but there was absolutely no denying its place on our Book of the Month list.  We recommend at least intermediate skills in embroidery stitches before making the leap to reproducing these lovely designs.  Like every book we recommend, the instructions are easy-to-follow and have a step-by-step logic, even I would make an effort if the munchkin was a girl.  Even if you don’t stitch, this book is just lovely to look at, … and pat every now and then.  Available instore and online now for $47.00.

Dianthus: Elaine’s Botanicals

Dionne    Embroidery and Crewel     Dianthus, double running stitch, Elaine's botanicals, embroidery, french knots, holbein stitch, long and short satin stitch

Aha, we are back at Dianthus, I already shared with you that these grew outside my window in a small rockery garden when I was a little girl.  The sun shining on them in the summer mornings brought a delicate scent through the window.  These sweet little flowers are closely related to the carnation but are smaller with a more subtle scent.  Elaine has brought these little flowers to life with double running stitch (or holbein, for the blackworkers amongst you), french knots and long and short satin stitch … so not my favourite embroidery stitch, but worth the effort for this lovely design.