Stylized Clouds

Spring has sprung and we are getting a bit of rain here. The clouds looked like they would be interesting to embroider. I made a small sampler with a collection of different stylized clouds. I looked at pictures of embroidered and hand drawn clouds on the internet and came up with these four. The piece is  8 x 4 inches and each cloud is about 3 inches wide and 2 inches high. I used two strands of Anchor embroidery cotton 7050, 7051, 7052 and white.

I did the cloud on the bottom first, it was going to be the fastest. I used a modern style of Sashiko embroidery using graduating colours. Sashiko is a Japanese type of embroidery traditionally done in all white thread using the running or darning stitch on an indigo background. The first row is three half circles wide. I graduated the colours from dark to light. The second row is two half circles wide and I graduated the colours from light to dark. The top row was one half circle in the middle with the colours going from dark to light like on the bottom row.

The cloud on the left side is done in chain stitch spirals. I drew the outer edge of the cloud first. Then each rounded bump on the edge and formed them into circular shapes. Filling in as much of the space inside the cloud as possible. I drew and then stitched a spiral inside each round. I worked from the outside into the middle to be sure to get the outline the right shape. It is better to sew spirals from the center out to avoid puckering the fabric.

The cloud at the top has a swirly look to it. The solid filling made it the longest of all to do and it probably took as long to make this cloud as all the rest put together. I outlined the cloud first in back stitch, doing the white outside section first. Next I outlined the inside swirls graduating to the darkest colour in the center. I filled in the cloud with rows of back stitch as well. I had to make the stitches very small to make the tighter curves in the middle and the cloud looks a little flat. I think another stitch would have made the cloud stand out more and maybe would have been a lot faster. I like the way that it looks and want to try to using it again sometime.

The cloud on the right side is striped. It was fairly quick to work but not as fast as the first two. I used an outline stitch to work the lines. I worked the outline first then tried to keep the lines inside evenly spaced.

More Spring Veggies

Sampler for Lesson 2

I made a couple more spring veggies to use on the sampler for lesson 2. I made another radish that is coloured in and a spring pea plant. The peas are 2" x 4" and use the fly stitch, the twisted chain stitch and the coral stitch. The pea pods were worked first in a dark green colour. I used a solid fly stitch so the whole pod would be a solid colour. Each pod was started with a single straight stitch. Then a fly stitch is made around the straight stitch with point at the bottom. On the top pod I put the line down the center of the pod and it gives the pod a rounder, fuller look. The lower pod I made the line to one side making the fly stitch longer on the right side than the left. This makes the pea seem as if looking at it from the side and gives it a flatter look.



Fly Stitch

Pea Pods

Twisted Chain

Pea Finished

I made the stem out of a tight row of twisted chain stitch in a lighter green. The stitch follows a curved line nicely and is gives the stem a raised rounded look. I used isolated twisted chain stitches for the off white flowers too. Each stitch came out from the center two stitches facing up and one facing down. I used the coral stitch for the tendrils as that stitch curls around so nicely. The pea worked out very nicely and I thought that if the pods were just a little narrower and longer and the flowers worked in a red colour it could also make a nice green bean.

Radish Root

Cretan Stitch



The radish is 4" x 4.5" this one is oblong shaped to make it look different from the round ones last week. I used a closed Cretan stitch to fill in the root of the radish. I made two long rows the top of each row is red. The skinny root at the bottom is filled in with the twisted chain stitch as it was too skinny to use the Cretan stitch. I used this stitch for the spines on the leaves too. I used the lighter green colour and it made the spines look like they are standing out from the leaves. I outlined the leaves with a coral stitch which gave them a rough looking edge like radish leaves. I tried filling in the leaves with several rows of stem stitch laid one beside the other. I thought this made the leaves take away from the mostly light coloured radish and it made it harder to define the edge of one leaf from the beginning of the one beside it. 

Radish Finished

Radish Leaf