An Iris Bouquet

Last year we offered you A Big Bouquet of Roses (July 2, 2014). This year's “bouquet” is of irises, my favorite flowers. My mother used to call them “the poor man's orchids”. I have loved them since childhood and often make them the subject of my art and craft work. An example is this pink iris rug, shown below in a picture from our Gallery, from a few seasons ago. The design for the rug was based on a paper collage I did as a sample for fifth-grade students who were studying the work of the artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Following it are some more contemporary examples. We hope you enjoy them all.

Iris latch hooked rug, after Georgia O'Keefe

Our second iris was done as an example of Assisi embroidery (May 21, 2014). The sample languished in our workshop for a while. Eventually the center area was filled in to make a conventional needlepoint picture, mounted and framed. Here are the two examples for comparison.

 Downloadable Iris Needle Arts Chart

 I liked the stencil effect in the first example; it became the inspiration for three irises on a latch-hook wall hanging. The pattern is a simple one, which could be used to represent any bi-color iris color combination. I used the number “2” to indicate the darker “falls” or lower petals of the iris flower and the number “1” to indicate the lighter “standards” or upright petals. There are irises, however, in which the standards are darker than the falls. This is just as easy to arrange without changing the pattern. You can even “invent” color combinations that don't exist in nature –- at least not yet. The number “3” represents the “beards” on the petals; these are usually yellow or orange. The number “4” represents a short segment of the iris stem and may be done in any shade of green. The open squares on the graph represent the background color. The pattern can be used for counted cross-stitch or needlepoint as well as for latch-hook. You can probably think of other uses as well. To download the pattern, just click on the picture's caption.

"Spring"

I used a medium green background. When the piece was finished, I didn't think the flowers showed well enough. I carefully removed a row of background knots from around all the petals. I outlined the lower petals of each flower with the color of the upper petals and the upper ones with the color of the lower ones. This made the flowers larger and they were more noticeable. If you plan to do this, it is a good idea to mark your pattern to show the changes before you begin the work. You may remember that, when I showed the snowflake design of the Winter wall hanging (January 28, 2015), I promised that a Spring wall hanging was in the process of development. Here it is, featuring three bright bi-color irises. Incidentally, the Summer piece in this Four Seasons collection is in the design phase now.

Our feature on “stained glass” stitchery (March 8, 2015) produced two new projects. The first was a picture, shown in step-by-step photos as it was completed, of a blue iris done in the style of a stained-glass window panel. Here is the finished picture, mounted and framed.

The second project developed from a demonstration for transferring a design to dark fabric by stitching with white yarn or floss through a paper pattern (March 26, 2015). In this way, an iris design was transferred onto the front of a dark plum-colored sweatshirt. The original purpose was to show a simple method of transference with materials already present, rather than with commercial products. Once started, however, the outline just “begged” to be filled with stitches. J.D. calls this my “Cubist” iris. It isn't Cubist, of course, but I admit that it is rather abstract. Here is the decorated sweatshirt.

Iris embroidered sweatshirt, with detail closeup

Last of all, here are two conventional needlepoint pictures featuring bi-color irises. By now you have probably decided that bi-colors are my favorites. You're correct! The round picture is from our first season of this blog (February 12, 2013 and May 16, 2013). The other one is currently a work in progress. I painted the picture onto needlepoint canvas before stitching it. A future blog post will be devoted to the subject of painting your own pictures onto canvases. I'm experimenting with a novelty yarn in the background of the picture which adds a “pebbled” texture to it.
 

Now I will turn this post over to J.D. so that he can show you some of his favorite iris blossoms. I hope they will inspire you to use flowers in art or needlecraft projects of your own.

Remember to stop and smell the flowers,

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Some Questions Answered

(To celebrate passing the ninety-day milestone with this blog, Annake answers some reader's questions that have accumulated...)

Q:  Why did you choose the name Annake for yourself and your business?

A:  Annake is what my Frisian grandmother called me when I was a little girl. My middle name is Anna, in honor of my grandmother's only daughter, who died long before I was born. My grandmother was my foremost role model.

A Bi-colored Iris from the Garden

Not quite five feet tall and weighing less than a hundred pounds, she had an indomitable spirit. As a young woman, she left her home on the western edge of the Jutland Peninsula, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America in steerage (below decks on a ship), traveled across half the United States by train to Davenport, Iowa --- all to marry a man she had never met. She was a respected midwife who delivered scores of babies, including six of her own. More than a hundred of them --- black, brown, red and white --- came to celebrate her eightieth birthday with her.

She was an accomplished cook and an expert needlewoman. Although she was severely crippled by arthritis by the time she reached middle age, she continued to knit, crochet, quilt, and embroider into her mid-eighties. Sadly, she outlived all of her family except my father, another niece, and myself. Still she never lost her grit, determination, or sense of humor. She will always be my guiding star.

Q:  Why do you use the orange daylilies as a background for your blog? Didn't you say that irises are your favorite flower?

A:  Do you mean besides the fact that our daylilies produce so many new bulbs each year that we give away a wheelbarrow load every summer? 

Daylily Latch Hooked Rug

Actually, this goes back to a time when I was teaching fifth graders about Georgia O’Keeffe. I made several oversized flower pictures in various media show the students, along with samples of O’Keeffe work, before I asked them to make their own large flower pictures. Their favorite was a study in pastels and crayon of an orange daylily. Several students asked me to make computer copies of the picture for them. I did that, filed the picture, and essentially forgot about it.

After I retired, I cleaned out my files and came across the original drawing. I decided to make a rug, using the picture as a basis for my design. It was the first rug I sold. The lady who bought it was horrified at the thought of putting it on the floor and walking on it. She said she didn't know what she was going to do with it but she had to have it. That's the kind of customer I like!

Day-Glo Daylily Needlepoint

I've also done a daylily as a large needlepoint. The colors came from my imagination; however, I see one in this year's catalogs that comes very close to my imaginary one. Is art imitating life or is life imitating art?

Red Iris from the Garden

Yes, I did say irises are my favorite flower. I can hardly wait for this year's blooms! Incidentally, another of the examples I did for the O’Keeffe project, a pink cut-paper iris, became the basis for still another rug. (See the photo at the bottom of the page.) I'm glad I didn't throw those samples away.

Q:  You have shown several works in progress on your blog. Will we get to see them again when they are completed?

Iris Needlepoint, Completed and Framed

A:  Yes, indeed. They can be seen on our Etsy shop site, of course, but I also plan to use some to illustrate future posts. The framed iris needlepoint I was working on in the February 12^th post is shown here today. The wall hanging shown in progress on the February 28^th post is in the blocking and backing stages now and will be shown soon. You can see the jewelry being made by another of our artisans on the April3rd post, along with much of her other work, on our shop site currently.

Q:  Does the Gnome really live under your garden? (This is from a child.)

A.  No, dear, he was only teasing you. The ground would be much too hard and cold to live under in the wintertime. Actually, the Gnome lives under our house.

I really enjoy your questions. Ask away!

Annake

Iris Latch Hooked Rug

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.