Daisy days!

I am feeling very happy with my latest 'finish'.  I was just doodling with pencil and paper the other day, sketching little flowery pictures, when I thought to myself that I could use some of them as simple embroidery designs.  I traced one of the patterns I had drawn onto some cream background fabric, pressed some interfacing to the back for extra strength and started experimenting with stitches and threads.

After several attempts, I opted to use just four basic stitches: chain stitch, running stitch, back stitch and colonial knots.  The thread I used for the flower petals was a variegated pink thread and it gives a lovely subtle change of colour to the petals which were stitched using chain stitch. The flower centres are colonial knots in an orangey-yellow thread and the box outlines are an outer line of backstitch and and inner line of running stitch all worked in green.

Once the embroidery was finished I played around with some fabric scraps until I came up with an arrangement of colours that I liked.  I added a small piece of green to the top and bottom of the embroidery panel and then added strips of fabric in a 'log cabin' style to each edge until I was happy with the size and shape.

I then sewed the front and back together, sandwiching some batting in between and adding a ribbon hanging loop, turned the whole thing the right way out and quilted it.  At this stage, I thought the little wall hanging my project had turned into, needed a little something extra so I raided my bead stash and added some beads to the bottom edge.  The weight of the beads also helps the wall hanging to hang flat.

Here is my finished wall hanging, which I have named 'Daisy Days'.  I am really pleased with how it has turned out!