Frangipani: Elaine’s Botanicals

Dionne    Embroidery and Crewel     Elaine's botanicals, embroidery, long and short satin stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch

Colours are limited only by your imagination

I have lived my life in temperate and cold climates with big winds blowing for a significant part of the year.  The Frangipani has very few associations for me.  One memory that does stand out is my cousins wedding in Railay Beach, Thailand.  The frangipani there were a deeper pink than I have ever seen before or since.

Elaine’s Botanicals provide a reliable template for embroidery design, while her representation is a soft white frangipani, there is nothing stopping you from choosing your own colours to stitch this simple flower in stem stitch and long and short satin stitch.

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.

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.

Daffodil: Elaine’s Botanicals

Dionne    Embroidery and Crewel     blanket stitch, daffodil, double running stitch, Elaine's botanicals, embroidery, stem stitch

When I was younger, I was never really a fan of the Daffodil.  Daffs and Jonquils give me migraines so I never have them in the house or around it.  But when I see them, they always make me smile.

One of the last memories of my Grandfather before Alzheimers claimed his own memory is him telling me stories about the early days of his courtship of my Nanna.  He would pick her daffodils that were growing wild when they would go out walking … it was during and after World War II.  Years later, while he was recovering from a stroke in his forties, he would again go out walking and bring her home daffodils that he had picked that were growing wild.  I asked her once, what she saw in him, why she married him and she gave me a whole lot of sensible reasons but the one I remember is the last one.  She said it with a twinkle in her eye, and a very big smile on her face “… and he looked really good in his uniform.”

So I have a very big soft spot for the humble daffodil.  Elaine’s Botanicals Daffodil may not start a romance but they are a wonderful starting point for a novice embroidery stitcher, simple double running stitch, stem stitch and blanket stitch in bold bright colours.