I’m not ready just yet for fall. We’ve had a wet, hot summer and I’ve enjoyed it, as have the plants in the garden. But even so, I do hear the siren song of pumpkins and soup weather. So I took an afternoon to play around with an idea I’ve had for a while: cross stitch on burlap.
I’ve had this burlap in my stash for a while. I first bought it for photos for The Natural Home Wheel of the Year. It’s been sitting for the last few months in a tote, just waiting for me to have time for it again. Now, I wanted to experiment with it.
For the design, I looked on Pinterest for a free pumpkin design as I wasn’t in the mood to create one just for an experiment. I found this cute little one by Julia over at La Matassina Rossa. I used DMC 720 for the pumpkin and DMC 831 for the stalk.
I started off using four strands of embroidery floss. After a few rows of stitches, I decided to switch to six strands. I wanted the floss to fill in the squares, and four strands wasn’t cutting it. You can tell in the picture below where I switched. I probably could have used a thin yarn, too, for a similar texture. There’s an old folk belief in things like lace making and crochet that you leave a piece of your soul in your creations, and so you should make a little mistake somewhere to give your soul a way out. I tend to take that view when I make something that isn’t completely perfect. I’m leaving room for my soul to escape.
Stitching on burlap is similar in many ways to stitching on aida cloth. It takes a bit more attention, though, as the weave isn’t as even as aida. Even so, this little pumpkin only took me a couple of hours. Some of that time was spent trying to figure out how I wanted to display it. I had an original idea to make a ruffle out of some Thanksgiving fabric I have on hand. In the end I decided to just mount it in an embroidery hoop that I can hang near my altar.
I think I want to make a few more of these burlap cross stitch pieces. Maybe some leaves, or acorns, and other fall designs. I’ll wait a few more weeks before starting another one, though. I’ve got a little more summer in my system before I’m ready for fall.