My dad would often stroll through the garden fussing with this or that potted plant, adjusting his orchids, attending to the rose bushes or just weeding. I'll grant you he did not look like this hand embroidered Oriental gentleman, in fact he did not look like this at all-but he was Chinese. I took artistic license to a whole new level with this one.
The trees, in keeping with the Oriental theme were outlined in the Pekinese Stitch and filled in with the Pekin Knot.
The great many leaves are satin stitched and the gentleman is done in long/short stitches using DMC variegated cotton thread. His belt is done in DMC Rayon thread. The flowers, I used hand-dyed silk thread. The interesting thing about this block, is that I felt that I should not go "crazy" with embellies, as the main figure is masculine. Every stitch along the way was carefully considered, eight out of ten were rejected as my brain kept saying "this is a male dominated block."
If you would like to leave a comment and I hope you do, please click on the post title, Garden Stroll - May CQJP 2014 and the Comment dialogue box will open. Thank you and Enjoy!
