Tree Creepers - Finished

It was very important for me to complete this project and submit it for the Oxford Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild Members’ exhibition. The theme of the show is “Five Minutes from Home”. The idea was to look for inspiration close to home. I did not even have to leave the house! A few years ago a large willow tree in the neighbouring school grounds was severely pollarded, it never recovered from the shock and died. The remaining trunk has slowly decayed but Mother Nature has been quick to reclaim the old tree as her own. Very soon the ivy began its invasion and I have watched it creep ever upwards. One of the many birds that visit the trunk every day is the tree creeper searching for insects within the fissures of the rotting wood. These two 'Tree Creepers' are the subject of my embroidery.

© Carol-Anne Conway

I am very pleased to have completed the embroidery but it is not as I had originally intended. Given time I would have thread painted all of the ivy leaves but I ran out of time and in the end had to be content with outlining some of the leaves. Although I like the finished design with the outlined leaves I feel discontented with it because it is not how I envisaged it. Yet I am contented that I found a way to 'finish' the design and submit it for the exhibition.

© Carol-Anne Conway

"Five Minutes from Home" is on display at the Vale & Downland Museum, Wantage, Oxon, OX12 8BL from 9 April - 4 May 2013, 10-4 Monday to Saturday. Admission is free.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

The Ivy

Now there were only the ivy leaves to stitch but the deadline was drawing very close and I had other pressing matters to attend to! I would like to be able to write that I had planned to show the different developmental stages of the ivy leaves by the way that I stitched them but that is not the case. As time drew shorter it became apparent that I could not stitch all of the ivy leaves as I had originally intended. I was compelled by lack of time to devise an alternative plan.

© Carol-Anne Conway

I had already split stitched the outlines of some of the leaves and liked the way that they looked. I decided to thread paint a selection of the leaves but leave the rest of them as outlines.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

The Tree Bark

The bark that still clings to the tree has a rougher texture than either the exposed wood or the tree creeper. I stitched an under layer of colour in long and short stitch but made the angle of the stitches more irregular than I normally would.

© Carol-Anne Conway

© Carol-Anne Conway

© Carol-Anne Conway

© Carol-Anne Conway

When I had finished I thought that the bark still looked too smooth so I over stitched with irregular cross stitches to rough it up a bit. It still does not have the course roughness that I was looking for and it is nowhere near as effective as the wonderful bark I saw in the Threads of Silk and Gold exhibition. I am slightly disappointed with this bit but don’t have time to rework it. The deadline was drawing close and I still had a lot of stitching to do.

Happy Stitching