Sunday, September 4, 2011

Finished: August Stitch-a-Long (& a bonus sea star)

I finished this in August, placed it in the hoop, and took a photo for posting to the Flickr group as we watched Irene's progress towards us; I wanted a photo up just in case we lost power! But now I've framed it properly, so here it is again--not photographed on the wall, as I'd hoped, but outside on the deck, where the light was much better.

If you click on that, it should get a little bigger. This was so much fun to stitch, and I have no doubt that these vibrant colors will brighten my wall and my day in the dead of winter.

Also recently finished, another tide pool creature, this time on one of the "flour sack" dishtowels I bought for this reason. I'm not sure how these are going to hold up--it's a really, really loose weave, which you can see in the photo.

He's cute, though, isn't he? I used outline stitch (or maybe stem stitch; I can never keep those two straight) for the outline, seed stitch in both yellow and orange for the inside, backstitch for the contour lines, and a French knot for the madreporite. I think if I ever get around to offering this whole set as a pattern (I'd have to stitch them all first, and get a nice clean copy in PDF format) I'll have to include information about each animal. They're just such cool creatures.

It's not as "clean" as I'd like--the loose weave! It didn't help matters--but I still like it. I haven't decided if I'll continue with my original plan to stitch four animals along the bottom of this dishtowel, or if I'll switch to the napkins, which are a little sturdier, and just do one per napkin.

Happy Labor Day weekend, to those in the US. Enjoy the unofficial last (*sniff!*) weekend of summer!

6 comments:

lamina @ do a bit said...

Love the finished embroidered flowers.. so pretty!
I hope you little star fish holds up.. he is really sweet :)

Shell said...

Your stitchalong piece is great !
The little starfish is really cute, lots of tiny stitches in there :)

amy said...

Thanks, Lamina & Shell!

Rose Red said...

The hoop embroidered flowers look great!

I like the idea of the napkins. If the tea towel fails, you. Ught be able to salvage the embroidered part and reuse it on something else?

Bells said...

Amy these look so good! The flowers really pop and sing. Gorgeous. Make more!!

And the starfish is adorable. I have such a softspot for those guys. You've done a lovely job.

Donna Lee said...

The piece in the hoop is gorgeous. It's so full of bright colors it'll make you smile every time you look at it.