Embroidered Mushrooms and a chat about Helen M Stevens

 It's a lovely rainy day here.  After a rain has come our way, I am eager to go out after the rain has stopped and when the sun has started to warm the damp ground in search of the wild mushrooms that grow here. 

These delightful little fungi always inspire me to find my needle, gather my floss,

and try to capture their image in stitches. 

On this particular piece that I have started, I strayed away from what normally grows here on the grounds and chose different shades of red. I love the red and white mushrooms 

that Gnomes are usually hanging around. (the design I found on the internet and I am sorry that I  do not know who the artist is) 

However, this particular mushroom that I find occasionally growing, 

was on my mind when I was ready to begin to stitch the second mushroom.

I stitched the second mushroom in these dark colors. I have much more

that I want to stitch on this piece before I and call it "finished" 

so I will be showing you that hopefully on my next post. 

Now.......I would like to chat a little about the talented  stitching of 

Helen M. Stevens.

For all of you who work embroidery, you know the type stitching that I worked on the 

mushrooms are basically just a simple short and long stitch.  And many of 

you already know that many well known embroiderers have many books on this subject.

For this post, I would like to chat about Helen M Stevens. First, I will give you this link 

HELEN M STEVENS

 One only needs to type in her name to find out more about her and to look at her lovely work. I will place this statement about Helen M Stevens which can be found on her "ABOUT" section:

 "Helen created the True Embroideries Studio in 1981 to concentrate on aspects of embroidery which were, at the time, undervalued and little understood: "narrative" embroidery, representational work in traditional, even ancient, techniques encompassing a contemporary twist; techniques which allowed them to be accessible to modern audiences."

I discovered Helen M Stevens when a picture of one of her lovely embroideries popped up on my search screen of my computer.  I have only one book of hers, which I love dearly and constantly turn to as a helpful resource for many things I want to embroider. 

This book is titled 

"Helen M Stevens Embroiderer's Year.

I would encourage all of you to grab a needle and floss and just try the short and long stitch technique. It brings what you embroider to life! 

I also encourage everyone to keep resource books in your library, whether you stitch, quilt,

crochet, knit, or paint.   Books are a wonderful teacher and treasure! 

Now, tell me what you are busy creating! I would love to hear!