Hoop Up! Project 1

The first of my three swap projects for the Hoop Up!  Stitch & Send Swap was sent off to its new home a few days ago.  This one goes to Lydia who request a mandala type design and sent along a particular green to be used somehow in the design.  This was a fun design request as it allowed for lots of color options and embroidery stitches.

Here's my design still in the hoop:

The design comes from Eye Pop Art.  I chose one that had an organic feel to what is otherwise a very symmetrical geometric style.  Kind of reminded me of flowers.  The blog has quite few lovely designs to try out, I'll probably do a few more.  I think a white worked one would be lovely!

Here's a closer (although not very good) shot of the stitch work.

You can see the satin stitching in the green floss.  I also used a backstitch for the pink and the orange points.  There are lavendar circles of palestrina knots and the dots were made like cross stitch.  The majority of stitching, such as the blue stitching and the "floral" parts, is the stem stitch--my personal favorite for outlining.

For those who could use some stitch options, try Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials.  I find her work to be well photographed and easy to follow.