This design had its origin in a piece of wrapping paper that came with a gift. It reminded me of those ubiquitous Charles Rennie MacIntosh Art Deco roses (a style which I have to admit I rather admire, at least when done by MacIntosh) It’s a simple style to imitate, so this was an easy design to draw, and for such a complicated design, surprisingly straightforward to digitise
Roses v. 1
The first major problem was the terrible “pull” around the edges., where the embroidery distorts the fabric.This is a large design (7 x 11 inches), so it needs the largest hoop my machine has, and this hoop sometimes doesn’t hold the fabric firmly enough
Also the colours were all wrong. I don’t have many red fabrics in my collection so I can see I’ll have to paint my own for this. Finally, I thought the overall effect was a little bit simple. Simplicity was of course one of the hallmarks of Charles Rennie’s brilliant style, but as I’m not really an Art Deco artist, I felt like adding a little more detail
Roses v.2
The result was definitely an improvement, although the changes I made to the border were a mistake. Still, the detailing works pretty well, and adds a little extra dimension to what is quite a flat design. The hand-painted fabrics add an interesting variation in shades and are a (slight) improvement. The pull problem is better, although still not solved. If this design didn’t take so long to stitch out I’d make a v. 3 – however as it is, I think I’ll leave it for the moment