I know I have been a bit slack here lately, but I have been stitching, and we've also been away. I will share the shopping trip in another post at a later date. I wanted to make a little landscape so I could use one of the stitches from the latest TAST challenge. This little scene has been named Blossoms on the Bloodwood, a phrase 'stolen' from the lyrics in a song I like very much [oh, and, we also have Bloodwood trees growing not very far from our house]. You can see the lyrics here. I haven't always been a big fan of this Australian country music artist, but this is a little different for him. I won't mention his name here, simply because my blog will come up every time someone Googles his name. I used water colour pencils for the drawing, and enhanced it further with free machine embroidery, and lastly some hand stitching.
I hope this close-up will show the little grassed area. There are several layers to this - machine embroidery in a dark/light green rayon, running stitch in several different thread colours and weights, the wheatear stitch [in variegated silk] which is the stitch our group was given last Tuesday, as well as some Ghiordes' knot work in the foreground [thank you very much Shirley for your advice regarding this area].
I particularly enjoyed doing the long dry grass, and making the tree come to life using green polyester organza, distressed with my little soldering gun. I can see things that should have been changed, but on the whole it's okay. I managed to find the frame and several mountboards in the cupboard, so this is a 'finish', thankfully.
