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How to embroider a large flower without using needle painting technique

I will soon propose to you a new design that I am currently embroidering.

It consists among others of two large flowers of more than 8 cm in diameter and of course with large petals.

When I started to embroider the first of these petals, I say decidedly, no, you would not be happy because I know that many of you are not yet comfortable with the technique of needle painting.

So I thought about it, did some testing and here’s what I propose, adapted from weaving technique.

 

 

For the orange flower

This is a simple grid embroidered with satin stitch.

Embroider the outline and the grid lines of the petal with split back stitch 1 thread. 

In this example, I used a fine Stef Francis silk thread.

Fill one ” box” of two transversely with satin stitch 1 thread but in staying inside the grid lines

Now fill in the remaining ” boxes” in satin stitch 1 thread vertically and covering the grid lines.

 

The flower is complete.

I will talk about the technique of needle lace that I used in the second row of petals an other time.

For the heart, I first embroidered the smaller petals with satin stitch 1 thread on a  2 threads padding and the center also in satin stitch 1 thread but on a 3 threads padding. I finished with a simple trellis 1 thread.

For the pink flower

The petals are embroidered with a double weaving stitch

Work the warp stitches first.These are long straight stitches that go from the top to the bottom edge of the petal 

Here I chose to embroider each time 2 stitches close together with 2 strands stranded cotton and using a varigated thread.

This gives me the opportunity to make a diference in color and material between the threads used to the warp and those I’ll use later to the weft. 

This example is embroidered with House of Embroidery stranded cotton and Stef Francis fine silk.

For the weft, I chose here to do 2 passes each with 3 threads before alternating weaving.

 Here is the petal during working.

the petal is completed

The flower is finished.

Each petal is surrounded by a chain stitch made with 3 threads.

The center is embroidered in satin stitch 1 thread on a  3 threads padding. Some petals are also lined with the same chain stitch 3 threads.