Back in September,I was reading Mary Corbett's embroidery blog and came across the Autumn Leaves & Acorns post which also has/had (you choose) a free pattern. In the post, and pattern, there are NO instructions on stitches to be used nor are there any colors identified but a link to the House of Embroidery (HoE) Fall Colors floss assortment was. I looked at the tread assortment and I knew how I was going to sew this pattern and that I would need more colors than what was in the assortment.
Here is what I decided to do:
The embroidery would be mostly satin stitch for the body of the leaves and acorns; french knots for the acorn caps and dots in the outer spiral swirls; and stem stitch for the spiral swirls; and lastly some split stitch for the veins on the leaves.
For the colors I would start with "summer" colors - greens for leaves and greens and tans for the acorns in the center. As I worked the pattern outward the colors would change to "autumn" - yellows, browns, reds, oranges and a little bit of purple.
Now that I knew what I wanted to do, I had to get the threads. I decided that some threads would be variegated so slight color changes would happen randomly and I would also use solid colors either two threads of the same color or one thread of two different colors to add some shading. Since Mary had suggested HoE and having not used their threads before, I went through the HoE embroidery threads and bought a larger variegated assortment and I also went through my DMC stash of solid colors and selected several Greens, Yellows, Browns, Oranges and Reds that coordinated with the HoE threads.
I transferred the pattern to some good quality quilting muslin (it was in my stash so why not use it) using butcher paper and my ink jet printer. YouTube has lots of video's so I am not going to repeat it here - this a process I learned 20+ years ago for making labels for my quilts. I ironed the fabric to a light weight, non-woven, fusible interfacing as this would prevent stretching of the muslin as I did the sewing. I then put the fabric on a square stretcher frame with brass tacks; since I was working in the "round" and from the center outward, I figured that IF I used a hoop, I would be constantly re-adjusting it and the fabric tension.
Finally, it was time to start! I worked on this on evenings and weekend while watching my favorite shows to the television so yes, it took a bit over 2 months to do but it is now done
BTW, Mary calls this a kaleidoscope pattern since when divided into quarters, each section repeats around the center; she has other patterns of this type and I think they are fun to work on.
The pictures below are various process pictures I took and then posted in the Needle and Thread Facebook group. To my surprise, Mary herself, even commented on it! Here is what she wrote and I consider this high praise!
RSS Feed
