Stitching practice: red roses branch

You know, how they recommend daily practice to beginning painters? The more you train the movements of your hand holding the brush, learn blending colors, practice drawing various shapes and forms – all of the experience from this practice piles up into practical knowledge and makes one a better professional.

This rule can be applied to any craft and needlework is not an exception. Mastering the art of hand embroidery takes time and effort and sometimes you have to be prepared for failures. That's why I like to go for small practice embroidery pieces. I tend to not take them "too" seriously – this is a field for experimentation and trying something new, or just for practicing something I already know. At the same time, I still strive for a decent result.

In the pictures you can see my latest practice piece – hand embroidered rose branch with buds. It was inspired by a real branch, which unfortunately already withered ☹ But I'm glad that it will stay not only in my memory but is also transferred onto fabric through embroidery.

All the stitches are quite simple. Roses are stitched by spider weaving with few french knots in the middle. Stems are worked in a stem stitch (or outline stitch). Straight stitches worked closely together form the buds, and the leaves are stitched in a freestyle way: some have long and short stitching, some are worked in a fishbone stitch. I just worked them depending on how it was comfortable for me. 

Initially, there were only two shades of green for the leaves, quite conventional colors, but then I decided to add a bit of steel blue. I really liked the result – I think it added some interest to the piece, making it less “ordinary”. And it looks nice neighboring with bright red roses :)

That's what the embroidery practice is for. Preliminary experiments with colors and stitches are essential for getting better and successful combining them in more “serious” works.

I added side borders of fabric to add the accent to the vertical design of the branch. And am currently in the process stitching the lines of feather stitch decorated with french knots. It is more time-consuming than I thought (working french knots without a hoop is... a pain 😅).

How do you approach hand embroidery practice? What kind of designs do you use for training? Maybe you take seriously every piece you work? Share in the comments below! :)