Melitastitches4fun's Blog

As the Cherry Blossom Festival winds down in Washington, the Dogwood Festivals further south are about to begin. So, I present ‘Dogwoods in Springtime’. And, please forgive me if dogwoods only have 4 petals. I looked for a flower that had 5 white petals but decided dogwood is close enough for me! I have a few rose bushes out back – that’s all. I like looking at flowers but don’t need to know their names to enjoy them at the annual Philadelphia Flower Show or for the occassional trek to Longwood Gardens. If someone knows the name of the flower, please leave a comment.

This another example of a “Pinsations” original design & stitch selection. The pin is added to the piece so that the pin can be removed, worn, & replaced. Although for this one, Mary Ann, a co-worker, asked me to use 2 of her pins in the same design. I asked her how she thought the 2 pins related to each other & she saw the cat sitting under a tree. For me, the challenge was the relative size of the one pin to the other.  A flower wouldn’t be bigger than a cat! So, I placed the tree in the forefront so the flowers would appear larger. And, I put the cat on a grassy slope well behind the tree so that the cat would appear farther away (& smaller).  If you remove the cat pin, a stitched cat sits underneath. And, if you remove the dogwood pin, enough other stitches flowers remain.

This isn’t a large piece – about 6″x8″. I used overdyed thread for sky & tree trunk & overdyed boucle for grass. I started stitching that back & forth horizontally from the bottom up & realized that I was getting a streaky look which wasn’t thrilling me. So, I stayed with the same stitch but switched to more of a clumping of the dark area together to get the effect of clouds on the grass.  

Mary Ann was very happy with the piece. I do like the people I work with! I’ve worked with most of them for about 15 years.