As a person who loves to make personalized gifts, my luck in finding this lovely piece of fabric to use in this piece is unmatched. This small embroidery was made for my dear friend Ann, who worked for me in my small retail store for over 10 years. The store was called The Garden Room, and it contained garden and home decor, as well as hundreds of gifts with a gardening theme. Everyone who worked there LOVED to garden (including me). Although I sold my business a few years ago, Ann remains a very special person in my life. 🥰

Ann would wear an apron over her clothes as she worked, a self-imposed uniform that she became known for. She was rarely seen without an apron, and she would wear them until they were worn right through,🪡

This lovely linen fabric, printed with a bird and flowers, was from the front pocket of one of those aprons.🪻 When Ann "retired" the apron, I couldn't help but save it to someday use the remaining linen fabric. I am known to hoard anything that could potentially be used at a later date!🤦‍♀️

  The pocket fabric was very thin, so before I began stitching, I fused it to a piece of woven interfacing. This interfacing strengthened the linen enough that I could stretch it on a hoop and embroider. Without this fusible to stabilize the fabric, I would have struggled to stitch so many flowers in the garden!  

The flowers are a combination of 6-strand embroidery floss, perle cotton and silk ribbon. I love the effect of mixing types of thread, and the interest that different textures bring. The technique of stitching with silk ribbon is the same as with embroidery floss, but the resulting flowers are quite different. There is a richness to silk ribbon, with it's deep colour and luxurious sheen, that just makes you want to touch it!

The pre-printed design on the linen was my pattern - easy to follow and cover with stitches.🌿 If you look closely at the photos, you can see some of the places where the print was left uncovered. In areas where I wanted to add a splash of colour, I improvised over the flowers with French knots, lazy daisy stitches and the ribbon stitch. By using hand-dyed silk ribbons, variations in colour were possible, giving the flowers more depth and a really beautiful look.

The final design fit beautifully in a 9 X 5 oval hoop, and in order to finish the piece so it would look clean from the front, I added a strip of bias tape around the entire fabric edge, and laced it across the back. You can see from this back view, how worn the linen really was!

Stitching this garden was such an enjoyable project to complete. I love that I was able to include this personal piece of fabric into a handmade gift. Using pre-printed fabrics as a base for embroidery projects has become a wonderful "cheat" to speeding up the design process - simply begin stitching! The printed background colours elevate the design and provide a layer of interest in behind the embroidery.