Let's talk flower petals! First, remember we are using two floral designs on 18 count, one realistic (JudyAnn's "Magnolia") and one stylized ("Red Floral Heart" from Ann Wheat Pace) as our examples.
I know you will be shocked to hear we can use tent stitches on both designs' petals. But tent stitches are the backbone of needlepoint so don't skip using them because they are boring and take time. It is the one stitch that wears like iron and beautifully conveys shading, so keep tent stitch in the back of your mind always. It's never the wrong choice.
The petals on Magnolia are very realistically shaded. You can capture this by using skip tent if full tent stitches aren't your thing. However, I would go with satin stitches. A little planning is in order if you go with satin stitches. First you need to find all the shades of white that were used. I counted five looking at the photo in close up: stark white, cream, dark tan, light tan and light gray. Next you need to make a copy of your canvas. A black and white copy will do. Take a pencil and draw a line down the center of each of the petals. That's your establishing line. You will work from that midline to the left side and then to the right side when you stitch. (Or you can work midline to right instead--it doesn't matter.)
Now draw a few lines on each petal from the base of the petal to the right (or left) side. Work your way up the petal, adding lines from the base or midline to the side. You don't have to have many lines, just enough that you know the direction your satin stitches will slant. Don't like how the lines look? Just erase and redraw. It will take a while (there are lots of petals here) but this is your planning phase and will make the satin stitches go just where you want to get a realistic look.
If satin stitches seem too hard, then you can use Diagonal Mosaic. This is a very versatile stitch since it can slant left or right, or even be stitched as a vertical column. Here's a diagram to show what I mean.
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| Diagonal Mosaic Also Done Vertically and Horizontally |
However, if light coverage stitches aren't your favorite, try Double Stitch, which works very well in small spaces. It is a little harder to shade with Double Stitch, but you can break the long skinny cross stitches into four \ and / stitches, then add the tiny cross stitches later. If you want to go fancy, you can use a metallic thread for the tiny cross stitches. You don't have to use metallic on every petal--just pick out the most prominent petals, the ones that aren't partly covered with other petals, and use the metallic there for a little extra attention on those petals. Here is Double Stitch for those who aren't familiar with it.
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| Double Stitch |
Note in the diagram I've shown it with either tiny cross stitches or beads as the second step. You can also simply skip the cross stitch or bead for a more open look if you want a bit of shading to show.
So now we've talked tent, skipped tent, satin stitch, Diagonal Mosaic or Double stitch for "Magnolia." What about the much smaller petals on "Red Floral Heart"? Well, of course we can go with tent stitches here but the quickest way to go is with either Lazy Daisy stitches for each petal or try something called Long and Short or Needle Painting. For Lazy Daisy, you can do one big oval and fill in with smaller and smaller Lazy Daisy stitches to cover the oval or horseshoe shapes of the petals.
Long and Short is a satin stitch variation but done a little differently. You work from the outside edge of the petal toward the center point. Here is a tutorial.
Note that in embroidery the outline of each petal is done first in split stitch. This gives you a slightly raised edge. These flowers are small so you don't have to do this here. Next you work a row with the darker color (we only have two shades of pink in these flowers) coming up outside the edge and going down. Work a long stitch, then a shorter one half the length, then a long stitch, a short, etc., alternating the length of the stitches in this first row. That's why it is called Long and Short. In all the other rows your stitches will be the same length but because the first row has two lengths, all your other rows will have the same zigzag look. Note that when you work Row #2 and all the other rows, you come up at the end of where your stitch will stop and you go down through the middle of the stitch in the previous row. This helps blend the stitches (and colors) together. It's more natural to come up through the previous row's stitches but it doesn't give you a smoother effect, so come up at where each stitch ends, then go down in the middle of the previous stitches. When you get to the lighter color, change to the lighter thread. This sounds hard but it is not as diffiult as it sounds.
You can also just do satin stitches across the petals. You'll have to fill in a bit where the satin stitches don't touch because of the petal slants, but that's easy to do.
If all of this is Too Much, let's do Dotted Swiss. It's very easy and gives texture. To work the stitch, first do skip tent all over dark (or light) pink of the little pink flowers. Now go back and fill in the skipped stitches with tiny cross stitches. You get a slightly raised effect. You can use two different textures or threads here for more visual interest if you like. I often use a metallic for the cross stitches. Dotted Swiss is easy to do and easy to compensate and you can have a lot of fun playing with thread texture and color here.
So for the "Red Floral Heart" we have tent stitches (of course), Lazy Daisy stitches, Long and Short, satin stitches, or Dotted Swiss.
However, if you want something really fun and your petals are a bit larger and regular in shape, visit Mary Corbet's tutorial which combines split stitches, straight stitches for padding, and satin stitch.
Next we'll talk Backgrounds because every floral design has one.
