Autumn Jewels

Designer and Stitcher:   Pam Gardner

I have lived most of my life in the northeast but have spent the last six years living in north central Texas.  While there are many nice things about living here, one thing is missing – autumn, October autumn in particular.  October in the northeast is filled with clear blue skies, crisp weather and wooded hills bursting with glorious shades of gold, orange, red, and rust. 

I planned to stitch an autumn leaf design for years; I collected threads and sketched ideas.  Then in 2004 ANG announced the challenge theme for Seminar 2005 – Magical Metallic.  About the same time I discovered a folder filled with Autumn leaves that my daughter and I had pressed between sheets of wax paper many years ago.  I was amazed at how brilliant the colors still were.  It was time to put my memories on canvas.

To create the impression of morning leaves glistening with melting frost, I used only metallic threads to fill simplified maple leaf silhouettes.  The basic scotch stitch pattern was selected to allow me to concentrate on blending colors from the limited range available in metallic threads.  Colors were blended in the needle as well as in the scotch stitch pattern.  Variation was created by changing the size of the scotch stitches from leaf to leaf.  Stems were stitched in a dark brown linen thread which allowed them to recede without disappearing into the black background.

This is the first time that I have exhibited my needlework.  Just seeing Autumn Jewels displayed alongside pieces stitched by nationally known teachers and designers was in itself very exciting, but winning the Small Masterpiece Award was a wonderful unexpected surprise!

Excerpt of Conversation between Tony Minieri and Judy Souliotis about this piece
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