Carolyn Pearce Home Sweet Home workbox 27: the unripe strawberry, leaf and caterpillar on the tape measure cover

I’m half way through stitching the front of the tape measure cover from Carolyn Pearce’s book ‘Home Sweet Home: an embroidered workbox’. I got a bit carried away with stitching the unripe strawberry, and forgot to take any photos of it until it was finished! So here it is anyway:

It was done in three close pink/beige shades of Anchor stranded cotton, using French knots in one strand, to cover the shape completely. I stitched to outside edges first in French knots, to keep the shape nicely defined. The sepals are lazy daisy stitches. The catch stitch that holds down each sepal is then stitched over again in one strand of gold blending filament as a highlight.

The leaf beneath the unripe strawberry has an outline of split back stitch worked first, to define the shape.

Then I filled the shape with long and short stitch, starting from the outside edge with the palest shade, and working towards the central vein. I left a slight gap along the centre, to allow space for the vein highlight to be worked in stem stitch, in tan, once the long and short stitch had been competed.  Highlights in gold blending filament finished it off nicely.

To the right of the main stem is a little caterpillar. Carolyn, in her book, suggests making a very long bullion knot for the body (30 wraps!!), but I didn’t think I’d be able to do that neatly. So, instead, I made three long stitches in fine Medici wool, then couched over them in the same wool to make the body. The head is a French knot. The tiny legs are dark brown Anchor stranded cotton straight stitches, using one strand.

This is the front of the tape measure cover, once the embroidery is completed. I attached a lovely bee charm from Susan Clarke Originals to give it a special finish. This was suggested in Carolyn’s book, and although it was pricey once shipping had been added, as I had to send off for it from the USA, it is a lovely touch  🙂

Now for the reverse side of the tape measure cover…..

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