Melitastitches4fun's Blog

This garden has depth & variety that a larger garden (8” x 8”) can accommodate. There is even a water fountain. By adding some padding in several areas underneath stitches, I have added contour to the topography. Last year, one of our members offered suggestions for basic garden designs & stitches that work well in a garden. And, as you can image, no 2 were alike. I’m not a big French Knot fan but I worked some in along the inner border & used Raised & Palenstra Knots in order to call it a “Knot” Garden.

I had to place the finished piece inside a shadow box because I was afraid of dust. NOT that my friend & co-worker, Roya, who I gave it to as a gift upon completion, is a bad housekeeper!! We all get dust. Anyway, the shadowbox was quite an ordeal. When I realized the cardboard sides would show, I added straight stitches along the sides to cover them. Then, I had to tack down the piece to the cardboard so it would lay flat along the bottom – the fountain JUST fit – only slightly touching the glass. Once I had it fully attached to the cardboard & bent the sides fully, it puckered more than I had expected! Well, that just added a little more to the contour of the topography!

In this garden, I used the following stitches:

Outer border: Triangle

Inner North & South borders (top & bottom): Raised Knots with Colonial Knot centers

Inner East & West border (sides): Lazy Daisy, Straight Stitch, & French Knots (for simple flower design)

Large corner areas (listed in a clockwise manner starting at the NE corner or 1 pm):

• French Knot on a Stick
• Detached Buttonhole with a few layers of felt padding
• Web Stitch Wrapped with 2 rows of Rosette Stitch
• Milanese Pinwheel

North & South horseshoes: Turkey Work (I used a thread that expanded in volume beyond my expectation and covered the flowers of the inner portion of the horseshoe. Since I wasn’t going to rip it out, I had to cinch them together using a matching floss near the surface where it wouldn’t show. I learned that Turkey Work isn’t my favorite stitch & using floss would have been a better choice.)

East & West horseshoes: I don’t know if what I did has a name but necessity is the mother of invention & I sure didn’t want to do anymore Turkey Work. So, I took a chunk of a flexible cloth hair band & stitched up & over it using an overdyed bouclé.

Outer area between arms of horseshoes: Ringed Daisies

Inner area between arms of horseshoes: Raised Knots with Colonial Knot centers

Inner center area of horseshoes: Tied Windmills & Knots to fill in the spaces

Center portion: Jessica inside Walneto

Fountain: Needleweaving (over a stiff wire which had been bent in half & placed up through the canvas before stitching)

Ground covering: Not sure of the name of this stitch. If anyone recognizes, please let me know. Thanks in advance. Sharon (ANG Yahoo group member in St. Charles, MO) suggested T-stitch which I found in Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren & Beth Robertson. But this stitch is longer. So, I flipped through that book again & found it. It’s called Woven. Thanks Sharon for getting me to the right book!!

Stitch books used:

• The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen
• Stitches To Go by Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson
• Stitch Sampler by Lucinda Ganderton
• Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano
• Sculptured Needlepoint Stitchery by Ella Projansky