Cherry Blossom Square and Hearts Aflutter Square: more silk cotton, linen and doilies

As you know from my previous post I have been working on some expressive needlework. No it's not going to be a quilt or a wallhanging or anything so far as I know. I wanted to try combinations of linen, silk and cotton with handstitching and one of my mother's doilies in small manageable projects just to see if I could create something beautiful. Somewhere in the back of my head is always my love of anything Japanese and I think the squares I have made reflect this too. This next square is called "Cherry Blossom". It has a backing of rough silk and could be made into a cushion cover should the recipient fancy it. One of my objects in doing these squares was NOT to try for perfection. I didn't want perfectly even stitching or superb composition. I wanted to run with it and not be too precious about it. It's hard to say what I mean. I see many perfectly executed quilts but few creative or artistic ones.

 The running stitches which decorate the squares are like Kantha stitching as is done in SE Asia although they are not so neat and fine. In "Cherry Blossoms" I made leaf shapes to go with the flowers using neutral shades of embroidery floss. The Kantha was great fun to do because it was both easy and effective.

The friend I gave this piece to has had it framed in lovely soft colours.

The next square is called "Hearts Aflutter". Well I had to do something about the fact that the heart is slightly skew-whiff (can't spell it) because I thought it looked cute that way and didn't want to unpick it if the truth be known!

Unlike the other two squares, "Hearts Aflutter" has been lightly quilted and has a backing of off-white silk from a wedding dress purchased years ago from Vinnies.