An in depth look at another of Pat Bootland’s amazing octagonal box which has multiple themes. Pat says her inspiration was exploring the stumpwork and embroidery techniques in the Jane Nicholas book Stumpwork Embroidery: A Collection of Fruits, Flowers and Insects 1995.
Box Lid
Here’s the box lid where the main picture is an evocative view of trees and sea:
Around the main embroidery there is a theme of flowers, fruit and insects – some embroidered, some beaded and some stumpwork. Here’s a closer look at them:
Blue Flower and Insect
The petals of the flower are done in needleweaving – each one has been stitched and then twisted into a shape. The wings of the insect are made from loops of buttonhole stitch.
Soldier Fly
This little fellow is mainly satin stitch and straight stitch with beads for the eyes. Pat tells me that each wing was made by vliesofixing two pieces of transparent ribbon together and then stitching around the edges and on the wings to create a pattern.
Foxgloves
These are created with satin stitch with a wired edge and seed beads.
Bee
The body of the bee is turkey stitch (also called Turkey rug knot or Ghiordes knot) while each wing is two layers of sheer ribbon vliesofixed together.
Fig
These luscious fruits are in padded satin stitch.
Snail
The shell is twisted and whipped fabric while the body is padded satin stitch.
Flower
Pat has again used buttonhole loops – this time to create the flower petals.
Ant & Clover
Pink Flower
I was curious about the stitch used for the petals and Pat explained that it is whipped spider web stitch used straight rather than in a wheel. She likes the ridges it creates to give form not only to flowers but also to fish fins, shells etc.
Dragonfly
Berries
It turns out that these berries are beads that have been stitched over to create a sense of full ripeness.
Teeny Weeny Spider
The web and spider are really minute – no bigger than a centimeter (just under half an inch) – it’s a great example of using simple materials to great effect. The spider is just 2 tiny seed beads with some wool thread.
Thistle
This is another example of how you can use Turkey stitch very effectively – here to create the thick fluffiness of the thistle flower.
Carmen.
