Hobbit Tracks

I did this little piece for my lovely sister. The hem is pin-stitched, but this time with 3/4" hem and a shaped border. The pattern for the border was taken from this Hungarian design on Mary Corbet's Needle'N'Thread. Heritage Shoppe provides PDF's for a number of stitches, including pinstitch , which is also known as point de paris, parisian hem stitch, and madeira applique stitch. The pin stitching on this handkerchief was done with white rayon thread, more suitable for machine stitching, but with care it worked quite well for hand stitching and I love how it makes the stitching and the little holes stand out quite brightly. The embroidery was done with the same white rayon thread; the pattern was taken from this lovely French blog , except that I dispensed with the border and used only the motif, which is what caught me eye in the first place. Broderie d'Antan has a zillion lovely, creative, inspiring, and easy to use patterns. It's in Mary...

This is a little piece I embroidered for a dear friend. It's all worked by hand; the hem is done with a pin stitch (point de paris, parisian hem stitch, or madeira applique stitch). The stem of the lavender is stem stitch worked with two shades a green at the same time and the blossoms are wheat stitch with two shades of purple worked at the same time right over the stem stitch. The dark brown of the monarch's lower wing is split stitch and the light tan is long and short stitch. The upper wing is outlined with dark brown split stitch and all the colors are worked with long and short stitch. The body of the butterfly is long and short, and the legs and antennae are back stitch. The wee french knots were worked last and applied rather randomly. Thanks to my mother and Mary Corbet ( Needle'N'Thread ) for instruction and inspiration!