Monday 8 September 2014

Vintage Flower Embroideries: Finished!

With autumn rapidly rolling in it's rather appropriate that I just finished the most summer-y project in my WIP pile: embroidering a set of vintage floral embroidery transfers.

I finished the third design in the set - the pansies - last week. After much angst about my colour choices for this pattern, I am very happy with the final result!

 

Stitching this set has been one of those on again off again projects where you work on it obsessively for a day or two then abandon it for a few weeks then pick it up again and get absorbed for another afternoon... and so on throughout the summer.

I started it way back in June...


... finishing the rose pretty quickly and stitching the waterlily on trains and in my hotel room on holiday because I couldn't bear to leave it at home. I finished the waterlily a few weeks later then started the pansies just in time for the &Stitches picnic at the start of August, ummed and aahed about the colours and finally finished them last week.


Wanna see pics of the finished set? There's a rose, the pansies and a waterlily. I am pleased as punch with how they turned out.

 

Here's a closer look at the detail:

 
 

Lots of happy hours of stitching went into these flowers!

There is something quite meditative about getting absorbed in a simple embroidery project, slowly following the lines of the pattern and doing the same simple stitch over and over. It's a super relaxing process, and a very satisfying one too.

I have totally caught the embroidery bug now (did you see the free pattern I shared last week?) and will definitely be keeping my eye out for more pretty vintage patterns to stitch.

8 comments:

abbyglassenberg said...

They're beautiful! What will they become? That's my challenge with embroidery - knowing what to do with it.

CarlaK.be said...

They are gorgeous, well done !!!

http://thankfullga447 said...

I enjoyed you working so hard on these flowers, it came out beautiful.

Unknown said...

Congratulations! They are beautiful, simply beautiful, and you must let us know what you do with thm! Hmmm, you seem to have finished them just in time for Thread in Farnham...coincidence? A new project is waiting... ;-) Chrissie x

bairozan said...

These remind me of my childhood - of course they do, since they are vintage :) Simple and beautiful!

Elsa said...

Beautiful work!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous! :-)
Jo | adventuresandteaparties.co.uk

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks for the comments everyone! It's been great sharing my in progress snaps with you guys as I've gradually stitched this set.

Abby - I have this problem too! I had been thinking about framing them in the hoop but I am tempted to use them in a patchwork project instead. I met someone who had a lovely patchwork bag made up of different fabric prints mixed in with designs she'd embroided and it looked great! We shall see :)

Chrissie - I am SO looking forwad to Thread! I will definitely be looking out for new stitchy projects to try :)