Purple Pansy

In my last post I mentioned that I have done three online courses that covered long and short stitch during the last year. I began the final course after I had finished Camellias and have just completed it. Soon after I finished the Chinese Flower by Trish Burr, I learned that Tanja Berlin was offering a course. Well, why stop at learning with one world renowned thread painting expert when you can learn with two!

© Tanja Berlin/Carol-Anne Conway

I am not going to do a comparison of the two courses other than to say that both are excellent and I have no hesitation in recommending either.

© Tanja Berlin/Carol-Anne Conway

The design (outline and contour lines) came drawn onto the fabric. The kit included an ample supply of the threads pre cut into stitching lengths and stored on thread cards. Also included was a booklet with well written instructions and excellent diagrams and further instructions were posted to the website each week. Students were encouraged to use the course forum to ask questions and post pictures of their progress. Tanja marked any observations onto the photographs and/or add any tips and suggestions in a comment below the photograph. I don’t think that everyone in the class used this facility; they may have preferred to email Tanja for a private review. Personally, I was happy to up load pictures of the bits I was not satisfied with and discover how to improve my stitching. I hope that others found the advice offered to me useful. I certainly benefitted from the observations made other photographs.

© Tanja Berlin/Carol-Anne Conway

Initially, I thought that the Pansy was a rather simplistic design but I now realise that it was a very good teaching device and getting the angles right, especially on the petals, was more difficult than I anticipated.

© Tanja Berlin/Carol-Anne Conway

I’ve written an awful lot about long and short stitch this year, perhaps too much, but his will be my last post on the subject for some time. I think that I have overcome my fear of the technique and will be more inclined to use it in future but for now I have lots of projects planned, none of which include LSS.

Happy Stitching