On the right path?

I have finished the flower beds and started on the paths - I think they help. This is slow especially as I only work in the morning to maximise the daylight in my workroom. However it is a very relaxing pastime.

Despite working in bright daylight I am not sure my knots have improved very much. The only thing is - I am managing to keep all the knots on the front of the fabric! A relief!

The fabric I used is not calico as recommended in the book but some silk and wool twill fabric left over from a previous dressmaking exercise. The fabric is fairly closely woven and comfortable to stitch into.

I am quite excited! Yesterday I found a copy of Christine Harris' French Knot Pictures at a Lifeline store - a great bargain at $9! It is in pristine condition - dustcover and all. Now I have some ideas for a picture but need to finish this piece first.

Maggie's garden grows.

I am not sure my pansies are all that successful. I have been studying my gardening books for colour combinations to use. While the pansies' colours were accurate, combined in such a small space they didn't look as good as I had hoped. I found some variegated thread for the nasturtiums and heliotropes. I leave it to your imagination which is which.

Since my last blog entry I discovered another book by Christine Miller - French Knot Pictures . She uses the same techniques and produces some beautiful garden landscapes - again, all in French knots. Maybe I need to stitch a landscape at some future date!

Sharon's TIF for May is available. The colours are soft blues and pinks so the palette should be enjoyable. The concept is "What do I call myself? And why?" I am not sure this one is for me. However I am still trying to decide whether I will take up that particular challenge or not.

Started planting

Choosing colours has been fun - unfortunately they don't show up on the scan as well as they should, especially the greens. The garden edging is actually the colour of lavender foliage not grey. The flower colours are not too bad. This is a bit like real life gardening - after it is planted and flowering I often wonder why I chose a particular plant for that position. Ah well! And just as in real life I don't have the heart to pull up a flowering plant so I haven't changed any of the colours I have chosen so far.

Three days of knots

It doesn't look much but this is three days stitching time - quite a lot of time, actually, as it includes a weekend. During the week I spend some of my sewing time at the sewing machine making bags etc for the school fair at the end of May - weekends are all mine! When one is retired there has to be something that distinguishes the weekend from the rest of the week.

I have to stitch these knots in 'broad' daylight - that means as strong a daylight as one can get. My eyes need a rest after about 20 inches of thread. The outside is stitched in two rows of single wrap knot using a single strand of floss (another good thing about this sort of stitching : a skein of floss goes a long way!) The French knots are not all great (and that is putting it kindly) and their placement is not particularly good but then, as I keep reminding myself while I stitch, this is Maggie's parterre. I can assure you that it is impossible for me to plant anything in a straight line or at equal distances. My husband can do this with incredible accuracy - his vegetables were always equally separated while mine grew higgledy piggledy. So it is a fairly accurate portrayal of how the edging plants might look if I had really planted them. (How is that for rationalisation of a fairly mediocre piece of stitching?) I have found it not easy to see at times but stitching French knots is definitely addictive and surely practice makes perfect.

The colours have not shown up very well in the scan . I used some of that lovely Anchor multicoloured floss. I bought it thinking I might have a need for it one day. Lovely shades! These knots use two strands so I have pulled out the 2 strands and turned one of them upside down to get a mix. It works quite well. Another fun exercise while I stitch - trying to decide just what flowers am I planting? So far I have decided that I have got nigella and lupins. Maybe I need some nasturtiums? Heliotrope?

Am I going crazy?

I am not sure what I am trying to prove but I have decided to stitch two projects out of two different books. The first is from a book I have borrowed from the library Little book of Parterre and Knot Gardens in French Knots by Christine Harris. I have always loved knot and parterre gardens but never had the patience to produce an actual one in the garden. This seems like a nice opportunity to have my own parterre. Besides I read the reviews of the book on Amazon and as someone there said the designs are all small and would only take a couple of nights stitching. Well the designs are very tiny but I have already decided that this is a WISP and certainly will take a deal longer than a couple of nights. The knots are single wrap knots in one, and occasionally, two strands of floss with the nine square inches of design are to be totally covered in these minute knots. I have already stitched two lengths of floss and the only way I can verify that the knots have been stitched correctly is to use the large magnifier!

The scan above is the last design in the book "Alison's parterre garden" - however I have already added a few changes: the colours will be certainly be of my own choosing- only then can it be Maggies parterre!

The second project is from Trish Burr's Redoute Flowers book - something I have wanted to do for some time. My appetite has been whetted by the beautiful iris that Elmsley Rose has stitched and described so beautifully on her blog - elmsleyrose.blogspot.com. Her attention to detail is amazing. I am almost scared to attempt one of these flowers but having collected the threads to stitch both the single rose and the magnolia I am beginning with the rose. I donot intend to change anything for this piece but will follow the instructions as closely as possible (not sure how I will go as I often have difficulties in merely following instructions on how to stitch a particular stitch but I can only try).

I usually prefer to go my own way and to design my own work. However we left the most magnificent magnolia tree behind when we made the last shift and I am very keen to preserve those memories in stitch. I am not quite sure enough of my abilities to start with the magnolia hence the single rose, which I admire also (our roses were not very successful except for an Albertine that tried to take possession of the whole roof at one stage - and I am very sure there is no way I could portray that beautiful blousy Albertine in thread).

There is no urgency to hurry either of these projects so I will plod along and try to document my efforts here alongside the TIF and other textile happenings.