An Indian Summer Garden - Finished and Framed

Here is the peacock in a summer garden. I loved working on it, racking my brains on which stitches and colours to use, and am pretty satisfied by the end result. Here it is framed.

Just looking at it would suffuse warmth into a cold, wintry evening!

WIP - An Indian Summer Garden - Part 6

Here's the peacock, all finished. I've used a host of stitches here - satin stitch, padded satin stitch, outline stitch, fishbone stitch, chain stitch, whipped chain stitch, herringbone stitch, long-and-short stitch, french knots, running stitch and, of course, straight stitch.

I hope I've been able to capture the colourful resplendence of the bird here. Next up, the entire piece.

WIP - An Indian Summer Garden - Part 5

After the myriad foliage, it is time to bring the royal bird to life - err, thats the poet in me! I love the bluish green ring around the deep blue center of a peacock feather, and my endeavor was to capture that in thread. The center of each feather is in french knots, followed by a bullion knot around it, and nested blanket stitch encircling them. The stem of the feather is in back stitch, and the fine wisps in fly stitch.

WIP - An Indian Summer Garden - Part 4

This design has three clusters of leaves, which I chose to work in trellis. I think, when working a trellis, the choice of colours is of utmost importance, for there needs to be a balance between the colours that complement each other, and one or two colours that "pop-out". Here the bright orange couching catches the eye immediately, while the dark and olive greens complement each other. The outer border of each leaf is worked in coral knots, while the leaf buds are worked in bullion stitch.

WIP - An Indian Summer Garden - Part 3

There is another vine that surrounds the peacock in little bursts of colour. I've worked the vine in chain stitch. The flowers are a combination of pistil stitch and french knots. The leaves are padded satin stitch, seed stitch and stem stitch. Nothing complicated, yet eye catching!