Sunflowers - In the Garden and In Crewel Embroidery Stitches - Preview 1

Last summer, I worked on crewel embroidery projects while at the Tuesday Farmer's Market in Northampton. My stand is not very busy and I have to have something to work on or else I go bonkers. The first project I made was my Circles Sampler which I made into a kit which is for sale on my website here. 

My second project was a little more realistic and based on one of my favorite flowers - the sunflower. For years, I have been growing sunflowers. If you are a longtime reader, you probably look forward to seeing the photos in September and October when the sunflowers are at their peak. I thought it would be fun to turn the natural inspiration into a stitched piece of crewel work. The wool thread I use (and sell here) is the perfect texture for sunflowers. 

Today I am going to share with you one of the sunflowers I stitched hoping that some of you might give Crewel Embroidery a try. (I teach Crewel Embroidery on-line on Craftsy - link for 50% off on my sidebar. I am also offering an advanced Crewel Embroidery Class here at the farm in August. Info here.) I will continue the previews over the next week or so. I've also dug into my photo archives to share the natural inspiration. Let's start with a beautiful vase full of blooms from last September. 

Let's start with the smallest flower.... This flower was inspired by the bi-colored sunflowers called Strawberry Blonde and Pro-Cut Bi-Color. 

Here is the finished stitched flower.....

Petals were made of closely packed stem stitch as was the dark brown center. I used bullion knots to represent the multi-colored petals mixing two shades of orange in the needle. To create the puffy outside ring of the flower, I used more bullion knots over a multi-color outer ring stitched in stem stitch. Here is a close-up of those stitches.

I stitched the leaves in closely packed chain stitch. On the outside edge of the leaf, I worked an open buttonhole stitch mixing two colors of wool thread in the needle. Leaves of sunflowers are usually jagged and this stitch approximated the look. 

I teach Crewel Embroidery on-line on Craftsy - link for 50% off on my sidebar. I am also offering an advanced Crewel Embroidery Class here at the farm in August. Info here.)