Sunday, May 07, 2006

Couched Tree



I bought a hank of beautiful hand-spun linen some years ago from one of the first Stitches and Craft type shows, the first one I'd been to at least. Each hank had a variety of shades, and I used the browns here in the trunk of the tree. They are each couched down with a lighter shade of silk. Foliage is worked with Appleton's crewel wool in Leaf stitch. Easy. Grass is Bullion.

'C' is for Claire, my eldest daughter. This patch of the quilt looked very dark in comparison to the rest, so I had to bring in more reds and yellows... before it was put together I lay them all out to see how they worked together and figure out a final order for the pieces. The little cross-stitch pansy is worked on hand spun silk and (the design) comes from an old book, or a newish book of old designs at least.
Just peeking out from the right of the bigger picture is a Shisha mirror, ensconced in a Buttonhole flower.

No comments: