Carolyn Pearce Home Sweet Home workbox 8: embroidering the anemones on the spool holder

This week I’ve been filling in the flowers and leaves around the sides of the spoolholder that I am making from Carolyn Pearce’s ‘Home Sweet Home Workbox’ book.

The anemone flowers are stitched using raised cross stitches. This is a really successful stitch to use for these little flowers.

I started by making a loose-ish cross stitch exactly over the pencilled circles I’d previously drawn, using two strands of red silk in a number 26 tapestry needle. Then, I brought the needle up near to the centre of the cross, and to the lower right.

Without going down through the fabric, I threaded the needle under the right-hand arm of the cross, making sure that the thread laid under the needle, and pulled the thread through snugly, but not too tightly.

Then I turned the fabric through 90 degrees clockwise, and threaded the needle under the next arm of the cross stitch (still making sure the thread was under the needle). I repeated that with the other two arms of the cross stitch to make one complete round – then carried on going, filling the cross until it was comfortably full, but not over-stuffed! The trick to getting this stitch right is to turn your work, rather than trying to thread the needle through at awkward angles.

When the raised cross stitch for each flower was finished, they looked like this. Neat, eh?!

To finish them off properly, I worked a tiny French knot in one strand of Anchor thread using two wraps round a milliners needle for the flower centres. This gave them ‘character’. I’ll work the stems later, when the other types of flowers are done, if there are gaps – otherwise, I might leave them as they are, kind of  ‘floating’ – not sure yet.

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