I just finished this motif for Sarma on her round robin block. Sarma's block is lovely and in the booklet she sent along, she talked about the forest and her love for walking through the woods and everything she enjoys about it. So, this is the theme for her block and I wanted to give her as many of the enjoyable things about it as I could. So, the first thing I stitched for her is this strawberry motif. Picking berries is a great part of a walk in the woods.
I thought it might be interesting to walk through how I create a motif like this. It is so great to free yourself from copying other people's designs and strike out on your own. Having said that, though, the first thing I did was google "strawberry plant images". Most of what came up were commercial plants which made my mind click that what I was looking for was wild strawberries so back to google I went. I don't copy the photo per se but instead use it to remind me of the characteristics of the plant I want to stitch.
I used the last Build a Seam (BAS) Challenge, Van Dyke Stitch, to create the leaves for the plant. The photos I looked at reminded me about the long leggy stems on wild strawberries that carry the fruit up to the sunshine where it can ripen. The chain stitch stems and Van Dyke stitch leaves on this plant are worked in good old DMC cotton floss, using two strands. I added the berries next, working them up in a bright red pearl cotton using padded satin stitch. The green DMC came out again and detached chain stitches formed the small leaves on the berries. They look plump and juicy enough to eat! lol Lastly, I added a couple blossoms using white silk ribbon and straight stitches. I used white thread to catch the ribbon here and there and manipulate it into the shapes I wanted. A single strand of yellow DMC and french knots added the centers to the blossoms. The last touch was the colouring on the center portion of the silk ribbon blossoms. I used a yelow water colour pencil and then a q-tip to moisten it and spread it where I wanted.
I like how this motif turned out and can't wait to get back to stitching in "Sarma's woods"!
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