My Flower Sampler

Have you ever had a dry spell in your crafting? No matter what you do, nothing feels right. The glue won't set, the paint drips and the seams won't iron flat.

Then, there are days when the Muse doesn't just speak to you, she's yelling incessantly "Get off of you duff and make this NOW!"

Well, my muse yelled those very words to me about a week ago. :)

I'm in another Hoopla swap on Craftster and was fortunate enough to get the Most Awesome Luckdragon as my partner! As usual, the moment after I get my swap partner, I go straight into stalk mode. I look at their profile, wist, pinterest, blogs looking for inspiration, color preferences, etc. This time around, I knew that I wanted to make something special. In Luckdragon's wists, I found 2 items that just jumped out at me, shisha mirrors and an organic flower motif.

And POOF!, here's my latest Hoopla creation! I combined the two concepts into a design that turned out fantastic. :)

All of the stitches are new to me. I opened up my copy of the Mary Thomas Embroidery Book and simply started stitching. I didn't allow myself to use any sort of pattern, only the very slightest of marks just to make sure that the flower petals were somewhat even. (This was super hard for me! I never realized how much I prefer symmetry.)

Now for a list of stitches that I used:

LEFT FLOWER - center is shisha mirror work in American Variation, petals are God's Eye stitch (LOVE THIS ONE!), stem is whipped chain and leaves are wheatear stitch

MIDDLE FLOWER - center is traditional shisha mirror, petals are fishbone (evil stitch this is!), stem is whipped chain and leaves are wheatear

RIGHT FLOWER - center is American Variation shisha, petals are shaded seed,stem is whipped chain and leaves are wheatear

Now for a closer shot of the "soil"...

 

Starting from the bottom row and going up, you see the following stitches...

tete de boeuf (fancy French words for cow's head)

feather
Pekinese
feathered chain
pendant
coral
composite cross
back stitched chain
and the top row is knotted blanket.

All told, I finished this piece in about 4 hours during a Lord of the Rings movie marathon that I indulged in while the house was quiet the night after I was given my swap partner. My Muse lit a fire under me that night!

I'm planning some tutorials on shisha work and my favorite stitches from this sampler so keep an eye out for those soon!  :)

Here's the SHISHA WORK tutorial! :)