This week I’ve been stitching the ‘orange tree side’ of the Home Sweet Home workbox, by Carolyn Pearce.
First, I stitched the tree trunk and branches in Stem stitch, using five close shades of Appleton’s crewel wool.
The oranges are outlined in Split stitch, using one strand of Anchor stranded cotton.
Then, to pad the shape, I worked Satin stitch within the outline.
Then I added the top layer of Satin stitch, in the crosswise direction to the first layer. You can see, on the left hand orange, the two layers, as the top layer is being completed.
Finally, I worked the leaves in Fly stitch, using a variegated thread with lots of colour changes in it, which gave a lovely look to the leaves. The tiny end of each each orange was worked by adding a very small Cross stitch in dark brown Anchor stranded cotton. This picture looks very ‘William Morris-y’ to me!
I was pleased with how the bee in this panel came out. The one that I stitched on the emery block came out looking more vine weevil-like than bee-like. I like this one a lot better!
The basket of oranges on the ground is made by first padding the shape with a small piece of felt.
Then Appleton’s crewel wool is woven across the shape in the same way that I did for the beehive on the thread cutter cover.
The oranges in the basket are little orange seed beads. The organised part of me has trouble reconciling the fact that perspective has gone out of the window here – the oranges on the tree are huge compared with the oranges in the basket!
Lastly, I stitched the meadow flowers at the base of the tree, in a similar way to the other panels and smalls.
Pretty, isn’t it? But those two sizes of orange still bug me……
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Janet Granger's Blog 
That is beautiful!
Re-perspective, what about the size of the bee? It is bigger than the oranges on the tree. I think it looks beautiful. What did you use for the bee wings? You have been doing really well with the various elements of this project. I really admire what you are doing.
Yes, the bee is huge, perspective-wise, too! He’s about three quarters of an inch long, on the embroidery, and the oranges are 3/8 of an inch. For the bee wings, I used Kreinik Very fine braid number 4.
Perspective is very Jacobean 😉 – this is a beautiful project!
turned out beautifully. just got the book with the instructions but unfortunately it’s in French….trying to use Google translate but not easy. the book in English is way out of my budget. any suggestions?
In theory, the English edition is being reprinted, so eventually it should be available again, and you may want to buy a second copy, in English, then!
thank you….hoping it’s not too far in the future.
Hi Janet, I’ve heard the rumour regarding a reprint but when I contacted searchpress they said there are no plans for one, as far as they are aware – so I’m not sure who to believe!
I think the Country Bumpkin people in Australia (who publish Inspirations magazine too – who are now called Create in Stitch) have been having cash flow problems, or they would have reprinted it before now. I emailed them a couple of months back, and they were still saying they hoped to re-print it then.
I did the same thing. I was so excited to find the book for sale online that I immediately ordered it. When it finally arrived I was shocked that it was in french. I haven’t had french lessons since high school, 55 years ago, so it has been a real challenge for me also. The names of the different stitches don’t translate well so I have been just doing whatever looked good to me. I have ordered the English translation from Australia as it has just come out. We should get together and at least share the proper stitches. I am also using threads mostly from my stash like Janet did. I certainly couldn’t afford the accessory pack that was available – about $350! Whatever the result I am sure I will treasure it more than if I had broken my budget to use all the recommended threads, charms and whatnot.
Maybe it’ a mixed orchard, and the basket is kumquats or apricots? It is very Jacobean perspective!
Beautiful stitching!
If the design had put the basket ‘behind’ the line of grasses and flowers it might have been a bit less irritating!
Yes, that would have been better. But I didn’t realise how irritating it would be, until I was stitching it, and by then I’d drawn the design on the fabric, and stitched half of it!
I think the basket with the beads looks really nice, even in that position. It looks like a basket of perhaps some other fruit.
Lovely project! The use of beads was a nice touch!
I agree that perspective seems to be irrelevant to this project but the overall effect is very pretty indeed.