The Flowers of Spring's  Story, Part 2  Threads and Techniques

One of the dominant threads of this sampler is Pearl Cotton, a much maligned thread in today's world where silk reigns. Poor pearl cotton, now considered only a beginner's thread, yet it is the only appropriate thread for the most difficult parts of embroidery I know how to do.

Here's a good example: notice the yellow center of the square on the right, a ring of 8 bullion knots done in air and much more difficult than an ordinary bullion knot. To make it worse, you have to do the 8 well. No good to do 7, then muff up on the 8th -- you have to rip out all 8 and start over again. And here's the worst part: you don't have infinite tries because the surrounding area wears out.

I like bullion knots, all sorts of them. As should be evidence on these samplers, I like to garden with a needle and it is nigh on impossible to garden with a needle if you don't know how to do bullion knots.

The Flowers of Spring's  Story, Part 3   The Design Elements

It was about this time that my interest in landscapes (tiny ones) took hold and I started a new collection which is wonderful: I collected all sorts of postcards from 1900-1910 with tiny tiny scenes. For once I was lucky: instead of being the most expensive of vintage postcards, they were the cheapest. Collectors didn't want them and I could often buy them for 5¢ or 10¢ each. Once in a while I had to pay 50¢ for an Arts and Crafts style one. It was a lovely collection that I bought for inspiration.

Maybe some of you will recognize their effect on my stitching if you look at the small scene that I used first on The Passage of Time and altered here for The Flowers of Spring.

The Flowers of Spring's  Story, Part 4  More to Come

When I stitched  Flowers of Spring, I had it in mind to stitch a sampler for each of the four seasons. I love seasonal things, in part I guess because I live in an area which is more or less season-free. I would rather live here in SoCal but visually I love the seasons.

I can't remember why I didn't stitch the others, but they are on my bucket list to stitch. The drawings have been finished for years, but I will likely revise them a bit.

Notice I put the scene in a frame of flowers and leaves on The Flowers of Spring. In the autumn sampler, the scenes (two of them) grow out of an acorn and a maple leaf and in snowflakes for winter. See, I will have very good use for those postcards as soon as I have some time.