As soon as I saw the lovely photograph of silver birches in the autumn at Clumber Park which the owner of the next travelling book had requested to use as a stimulus, I knew exactly what I wanted to stitch. This is usually fatal. I rarely find that my fumbling attempts in reality match up to the clear and beautiful picture in my head. But…this time it actually did!
The black and white graphic quality of the trunks said blackwork and once I’d found a close-up image from the internet to work from, I was away.
I found some lovely mossy green hand-dyed aida for the background and a variety of weights of silk and cotton thread to stitch with.
Rather than using blackwork patterns, I simply sketched the trunks from the internet picture in thread rather than ink. One of the key features in my mental picture was that there was no edge to the trunks, leaving the eye to fill in the gaps. This means that the image works rather better from a distance than up close.
The right-hand page was already pre-coloured and the source photo can be seen top left. I added the image I’d used from the internet as well as a suitable quote on the inspiration page and mounted the blackwork on the right.
Very proud of this one!
Under A Topaz Sky 
Lovely stitching Alex, lifelike! That certainly makes a page to be proud of. Inspiring! I can think of a tree I’d like to embroider, but I would probably take a lifetime to stitch it. Barbara xx
So beautiful and as always so creative… you always give life to the things… Thank and Love, nia
A triumph indeed – well done!
Lovely! A great addition to your book!
You shold be proud. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to have a vision and achieve it. Beautiful embroidery.
Lovely and so effective!
A beautiful piece and it looks equally effective viewed from a distance or as a close up.
Such an inventive approach – lovely!
WOW! You should be very proud of this, it’s gorgeous
Delicious birches, you should be proud! Really enjoyed catching up with all your lovely work here.
I really like the ”fragmented” look of the black work Alex. The book pages laid open look amazing….I love a great page spread…