Mastering a challenge-The Secret Garden

What happens when you envision a scene in your mind and want to transfer it to machine embroidery stitches….well…to start off you draw and then digitize. But what if the dream is quite large and you cringe at the idea of multi-hooping even though you can do it, yet you are not sure if others will be able to follow along. Last September when I was finishing the Logo for the AEC, I kept envisioning a garden scene with dogwoods and wisteria. The thought was put aside as I really didn’t want to create a monster design which only a  handful of people would be able to stitch out. Yet, the thought kept on pestering me until finally it dawned on me that I could create the same using a simple methodology which I had used when I had first started machine embroidery. Many of you would remember the Victorian Table cloth design which was a cross stitch design of about 24 panels all for the 4×4 hoop. The complete design was absolutely beautiful once put together. The concept was really simple. Each of the 4×4 hoop panels were stitched out separately and then stitched together to create the centerpiece of a table topper. I could apply the same method here as well. With that in mind, the concept of “Southern Charm-The Secret Garden” was created.

The first step was to create the drawing and allocate placement of each of the design elements. I wanted a garden with all sorts of flowers that usually grow in the Southern United States. The garden had to have a dogwood tree with a wisteria arbor and azaleas and magnolias blooming everywhere. Ofcourse this was in my mind….when it came to drawing the garden I was a bit amazed at how much space this masterpiece would actually take, not to mention the amount of hours to create it! Normally when I’m creating the blueprint for a design I hardly if ever stay with it all the way. There are always changes to it at some stage and the end result hardly if ever resembles what I started out with!! I knew I wanted the 5×7 hoop as my main hoop for all the embroidery. Looking at my first drawing I realised that this would already take up nine hoopings and the Magnolia tree and azaleas were not even brought into the picture yet! Never mind the dogwood tree was only a branch!

Disappointed but not completely wanting to abandon the idea, I started to think about the concept of the whole drawing. I already knew that I wanted to call it “The Secret Garden” so that part was plainly understood that it would be a sanctuary type image. Drawing some more sketches I decided the Secret garden to have an old fashion chair. Somehow I wanted to give the impression of a female ownership so I added a hat to the chair with a stole/shawl draped on one arm. I figured I could still creep in some azaleas and perhaps a magnolia bloom or two somehow. Allocating hoop sizes to each of the panels, it was quite apparent that nine 5×7 hoops would be my maximum limit.

Anxious to start off, I took the drawing 2 as it was and started work on the first row. As I worked, several issues became quite apparent. The very first was the number of threads. I had three shades of green, two shades of brown, two shades of white, two shades of purple and two shades of yellow making it a total of at least eleven colors. I had yet to add the colors for the hat, the chair, the shawl and if I was to add any other flowers, then at least two colors for each different types of flowers was to be considered. This did not start to look like fun and or feasible. I definitely would have to make some changes to my “Secret Garden”.

Working some minor adjustments into the sketch, I gave up the idea of introducing magnolias into the garden. I already have created a magnolia collection which I’m rather proud of considering that when I made it, I had never seen a magnolia flower in real life. The same problem occured now. I have never seen wisteria, at least the wisteria that grows in the Southern USA. In my birth country of Pakistan, we have a similar looking flower but it is yellow and not purple. Relying upon pictures of actual flowers taken by some of my testers, I had created the logo for the AEC but didn’t know the dimensions of a wisteria bunch compared to a dogwood flower. Several phone calls and several emails later, I had a rough idea. The azaleas would introduce another two colors into the picture and I really didn’t want any more threads. Besides, perspectively, the true beauty of the azaleas would have been lost in this large image as the focal point is at the top and not at the bottom.

It has been a long week and a half for me now. But the masterpiece of “The Secret Garden” is almost complete ( a few minor adjustments here and there) and ready to be stitched out, actually stitching as I write. Adding fern and other greenery at the bottom of the whole picture makes the dogwoods and the wisteria as the focal point. I had a dreadful thought of the whole idea being too busy and overwhelming instead of the peaceful quiet feeling that I wanted to impart. My initial work files had the complete background covered with meandering stitches which I eliminated after the first test stitch as they distracted a lot. Each panel takes approximately an hour to stitch out and with the exception of two panels having two jump stitches, the whole masterpiece is without any jump stitches. I do need to work a bit on my chair but other than that I do believe “Southern Charm-The Secret Garden” is ready. I hope to release it at the AEC this coming March.