Wildflowers
The last flowers in the meadow
After the poppy, daisy, sunflower, umbels, silene, clover, and wheat ears, it’s time to add the finishing touches to our arrangement. Scabious and bellflowers complete this rustic bouquet with their elegance and natural lightness.
A common sight in summer meadows, these two flowers add movement and delicacy to the entire composition. The scabious flowers captivate with their delicate corollas in subtle shades, while the bellflowers hold their light, bell-shaped blooms at the tips of supple stems. With them, our stroll through the heart of the wildflowers gently draws to a close.
Scabious flowers
The scabious is a flower full of delicacy. Its numerous petals form a light corolla whose irregular contours give it a very natural charm. In nature, it attracts many butterflies and contributes to that sense of realism we wanted to capture in this project.
For the embroidery, I chose shades of purple and mauve that play with the light. The petals are worked in successive layers to create an ethereal flower. A few French knots in the center add depth and naturally draw the eye to the heart of the flower.
DMC 552, 554, 153
House of Embroidery Stocks 79C
House of Embroidery Lemon and Lime 25A
Embroider the outer petals of the flower using the satin stitch with 1 strand of thread, varying the colors.
Embroider the innermost petals with a blanket stitch using a single strand of thread, varying the colors. Finish by placing a few 2-strand, 2-loop French knots in the gradient color at the center of the flower.
Bellflowers
With their small, bell-shaped flowers, bellflowers add a touch of freshness and lightness. Their supple stems seem to sway at the slightest breeze and create a lovely contrast with the rounder shapes of the other flowers in the bouquet.
The shades of blue used for the bellflowers help convey their simple shape and lightness. The slender stems reinforce this sense of natural movement that characterizes wildflowers. They also add a touch of fresh color that harmoniously balances the warmer tones found elsewhere in the composition.
DMC 3807, 3840
House of Embroidery Blue Gum 5A
Outline the rim of the bell using a 1-thread split backstitch in the lightest shade of blue, and embroider the tips of the tiny back petals using a satin stitch with 1 thread in the darkest shade of blue.
Fill the entire surface of the bell using long and short stitch 1 thread, with the light blue color.
Embroider a few straight stitches with 1 strand of thread at the bottom of the corolla, and create the stems with one or two rows of 2-strand stem stitch, all using color 5A.
Here is a photo of a group of finished bellflowers.
Over the course of these weeks, “Wildflowers” took shape flower by flower, stem by stem, until it became the radiant bouquet I had envisioned from the start.
Each element finds its natural place here: the simplicity of the daisy, the brilliance of the poppy, the warmth of the sunflower, the delicacy of the umbels, the small, unassuming flowers hidden among the foliage, and the ears of grain that evoke summer harvests. Together, they create a vivid tableau where colors, textures, and movement intertwine.
I particularly enjoyed working on this design, which allowed me to use a wide variety of stitches while preserving the spontaneous and joyful spirit of wildflowers. That’s also what gives it its charm: no single flower tries to dominate the others; each one simply contributes to the overall balance. I hope this embroidered stroll through the fields has given you as much pleasure to embroider as it did me to create it.