Little Garden on a Hill

Taking a break from a larger project that requires more concentration than I am capable of for longer than a couple of hours, I treated myself to a play date with the "snowball" I pieced a few days ago.

Sketching the embellishments was where I left off the last time. Now, with my transparent paper pinned to the block, I realized that, while the green patch on the bottom looked like a nice hill and I could use that idea, it's orientation also gave the block a rather sad look. I solved this by adding some flower beds, getting inspiration from a great Japanese embroidery book I received as a gift from my dear friend, Lee Albrecht.

With the flower beds sketched, it only seemed natural to use a variation of blanket stitches for the seam around the hill, to suggest a little fence. Then came the variation of feathered chain stitch on the right seam, and the feather stitch seam treatment for the lavender-blue patch on the top, both to be taken a bit further by beading.

For the patch on the left I planned a tree with blossom clusters, and to balance the block, wisteria for the patch on the right. And maybe a butterfly in the center...

To transfer the pattern of the flower beds to the block, I copied it on tissue paper, pinned the paper to my block and went along the lines with running stitches. Then I tore away the tissue paper, embroidered the flower beds with whipped stem stitch and unpicked the running stitches.

Now they are ready for flowers to be planted :)

What I am really looking forward to is embroidering the tree. This would be my first one... I'll let you know how that goes.

Until then,

have a wonderful week, Everyone!