Craft Focus - Feb/Mar (Issue 71)

GOT Featuring bright spring colours, Katrina Wilson’s easy stitching project has a delightful three-dimensional quality the blues Materials • Background fabric: plain cotton, cream, medium-weight, 24cm x 20cm (9½in x 7½in) – outer measurements • Featured threads and yarns as listed • Pale blue organza for sky, 11cm x 7cm (4¼in) x (2¾in) • White organza for motif backing, 18cm x 14cm (7in x 5½in) • Dark blue, dark green and light green organza for motif • Fabric or ballpoint pen • Needle, lighter, pencil and tealight for melting out motif • Blue seed and bugle beads • Chenille needle, size 22 • Flower-headed pins • Embroidery scissors • Spring tension hoop, 12.7cm (5in) diameter • Framer’s mount, 17.5cm x 15cm (7in x 6in) with aperture of 8.5cm x 5.5cm (3¼in x 2 ¼in) • PVA glue (suitable for use with fabric) • Design templates 2a and 2b (included in book) Featured threads and yarns 1 Anchor 681 2 Anchor 898 3 Anchor 86 4 DMC 4220 and Anchor 1349 5 DMC 4070 6 Botany wool, four-ply, lime green 7 Anchor 238 8 Anchor 878 9 DMC 562 10 Anchor 875 11 Anchor 254 12 Appleton 641 13 DMC 4050 14 Beading thread (Nymo) 15 Anchor 1 Featured stitches Stem stitch Straight stitch French knots 1 Trace the outline drawing from design template 2a onto the fabric. Tack a rectangle of pale blue organza over the design. The organza should extend beyond the drawn area by approximately 1cm (½in), and the blue should come down below the treeline, so the stitches worked in will fix the sky in place. 2 Work the trunks and branches of the trees in stem stitching using three strands of threads one and two. The foliage is worked in straight stitches over the printed lines of the design in three strands each of threads nine, 10 and 11. It may be easier to work the trunks and branches out of the spring tension hoop, and the foliage in the hoop. Go back in and fill in the spaces between the stitches. 3 Using threads 11 and nine, both in three strands, work straight stitches over the foliage areas in groups of two, three or four stitches in different directions. 4 Place several French knots in among the straight stitches in three strands of thread seven. 5 Fill in the crowns of the trees two in from the right in French knots using three strands of thread five. This thread is shaded, or variegated, so you will not need to place the colours specifically – they will just appear. 6 Work the distant fields on the right of the landscape in diagonal straight stitch using thread 12, which is a crewel wool. 7 Stitch over the shaded areas for the shadows of the foliage using three strands of thread eight, a cotton thread. 128 craft focus