Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Oops, and let's reverse if you want to...

Last week I shared a tutorial for embroidering a fly stitch leaf, with a free little sample design you could practice on...


It's such a sweet little stitch, and quite easy once you give it a go and make a few leaves.
Actually, Larissa shared a photo of her sample block on Facebook yesterday, and didn't she stitch some beautiful leaves!?


But there is something I need to share with you. On the weekend, the lovely Val Laird (who is a sublime stitcher and fellow designer), emailed to let me know that the veins of my little leaves were facing the wrong direction.
Now, I'm not really all that bothered about them because I play around (liberally) with nature when I sketch my designs to stitch, but I know lots of others who stitch really like to keep things as standard as they can. That's the joy of us all being so unique isn't it?

On my little Pin Book cover, and thereby HERE in my tutorial, the veins inside the leaves flow down toward the leaf stem....


...but as Val pointed out, in nature, as God made them, the veins flow away from the stem.
So I stitched another block for those of you who like your leaves 'just right'...


...and used it to corner a simply quilted pincushion!

 
Now you have a choice. 
You can either stitch the leaves the way I did in my tutorial, or you can simply reverse what I did and start from the bottom of the leaf and make a couple of small back stitches at the end for your stem instead of at the beginning. It's quite simple. 


And it's all turned out rather good, you know!
I now have a Pin Book for pins on the go, and a matching Pin Cushion for pins that stay at home. 

Perhaps you will make both as well?

Thank you dear Val
I have only been stitching for eight years, and just like some of you are learning from me, I am learning from the years of experience shared by lovely teachers like Val.


hugs,



10 comments:

Shari said...

Both items are lovely. I tend to want to do things by the book rather than be creative, but sometimes it is very nice to do both!

By Neymes said...

BEAUTIFUL!!! BOA SEMANA.VALÉRIA.

Marla's Crafts said...

You do such a nice job. Love seeing the things you make.

Anonymous said...

Very, very pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elly D said...

Thank you so much for this beautiful design. These would make super gifts! xx

Rhonda Cafe said...

We are spoilt for choice :) I love the leaves either way........thankyou Jenny xoxo

Tammy said...

Gorgeous either way. Thank you again for this lovely design. Love your pin cushion also. Such sweet fabrics you chose.

Larissa said...

Awww!! Thanks for sharing Jen!! <3 ... I didn't even think about the veins going the 'wrong' way when compared to nature as I was doing it either! Will give that a try next time ;) Thanks Val & Jenny!! I've still a LOAD more to learn in this embroidery/stitchery skill, and am enjoying it immensely!! xx

Lida said...

Love both! The pincushion and the Needlebook are both so cute! Hugs
lida

Melody said...

I think it looks fabulous both ways