Craft Focus - Feb/Mar (Issue 71)

11 Using thread six (a wool), work straight stitches at random, in differing sizes along the foreground of the scene. Make the stitches smaller the further back you work and blend to make the scene resemble a glade. Don’t stitch in neat rows, and work from right to left, going carefully over the marked dots on the original design. 1 Cut, fold and fray three small squares of organza – one in dark green, one in light green and one in dark blue. Layer the three pieces and pin them to the white organza. Adapted from Hand-stitched Landscapes and Flowers by Katrina Wilson (£17.99, Search Press). The book includes details of all the techniques and templates needed to complete the 10 beautiful projects included. Go to searchpress.com for more information about this and other titles. 8 Fill in the background foliage coming in from the left in three strands of thread seven. Use uneven diagonal straight stitches and blend these into the lower shadow area so you don’t end up with a block of stitching. 9 For the grasses directly under the treeline, thread one of thread nine and two of thread 10, working a line of vertical straight stitches. You can vary and mix up the sizes of the stitches so the grasses look uneven. 10 Scatter a number of French knots over the grasses and bushes on the left using three strands of thread number three. 12 Next, blend in three strands of number five, then fill in any open areas with wool (number six). Put in some additional grasses in the stranded thread – you will not need to put as much grass in the bottom-right corner of the embroidery as the beaded motif will cover it. 13 While still working with stranded thread five, fill in around the edges of the foreground grass. 14 Finally, for the first layer of the bluebell details, scatter in a cluster of French knots in thread four (the lighter of the two threads) using three strands. Cluster these blues in the empty area below the treeline, then add more bluebells into other areas on the left if you wish. Creating the bluebell motif 2 Mount the organza in a spring tension hoop. With randomly placed and sized straight stitches, build up an area of grasses using thread 13. Some of the grasses can cross back over each other – it is important to create a fairly solid shape to stabilise the organza. 3 Work the bluebells themselves using six strands of thread four. These are worked as straight stitches, from the outside in towards the stalk, into a column so that they resemble an arrowhead. Avoid leaving gaps between your stitches and work five or six per bluebell column. Vary the heights of your bluebells. Once you have completed a column of bluebells, insert the thread back at the bottom on the reverse of the organza. Start the next column from the bottom, otherwise the thread will be visible through the organza. 4 Add in the white French knots (two strands of thread 15) to represent wild garlic in clusters to the right of the motif. Make sure you work an uneven number of French knots for an attractive composition. 5 Choose a selection of beads from a seed mix in a co-ordinating colour set. Integrate matt and shiny beads, and seed and bugle beads together. Scatter the beads in the left and right corners of the motif. Then, using both colours labelled thread four, work French knots in three strands in between the beads and bluebells on left of the motif. This will stabilise the organza further. 6 Melt out the motif following instructions from the book. Alternatively, cut out the motif with sharp scissors if you prefer. Pick off any soot around the edges of the motif with your fingers. Trim to neaten it if necessary or fray the edges a little more if you prefer. 7 Place the background design behind a suitably sized framer’s mount with an aperture of 8.5cm (3¼in) x 5.5cm (2¼in). Position your motif over the mount to see where it might best fit. When you are happy, adhere the motif to the mount with a dot of glue. project craft focus 129