Pineapple laid and couched work
I just love laid and couched work! The finished design reminds me a little bit of weaving. The combination of threads running horizontally and vertically and the holding stitches does, in fact, layer different threads on the surface of the fabric, sometimes giving the impression of a plaid fabric. When I get to embroider laid and couched patterns on our balcony, on a beautiful sunny day, I am as pleased as punch!
The bottom three leaves on the pineapple will all be embroidered using laid and couched patterns. Two of the leaves will be the same laid and couched design and the third will be different.Unlike the leaves at the top, which don't incorporate any of the deep rose coloured thread, the ones with the laid and couched design on the bottom do use that delicious shade of red.
In the leaf above, the deep rose color is used for the centre vein of the leaf and the green, gold and blue for the laid and couched design. It's a simple design which is quite open and uncomplicated. In order to accommodate the vein in the leaf, I had to break the line of the laid threads which left a bit of space around the vein. I quite like the freshness of this pattern. It's always so much fun to embroider a laid and couched design. The pattern changes with each new layer you add!
The second design has squares in the pattern that are left empty and filled squares which are quite busy. On top of the gold thread that creates the trellis are dark blue holding stitches. In the centre of every other square there are green crosses with deep rose holding stitches over them. The contrast between the complex squares and the empty squares make this pattern one of my favourites; in fact, I used this same design in my RSN Crewelwork Certificate piece!
The outline stitches and the vein stitches for the leaves are both simple, but perfect, stem stitch lines. I especially like the look of rows of stem stitch embroidered side by side.
Traditionally laid and couched work was used to fill larger areas in crewelwork and there is a huge variety of old designs from which you can draw inspiration. It's also a relatively frugal way to fill large areas with colour and pattern, using little, very little thread when compared to long and short shading, for example.As you can see from the photo above, I couldn't resist adding a few of the golden French knots in three shades on the body of the pineapple. I just had to see how it would look!Not much more to do now to be finished!Do you enjoy laid and couched designs as much as I do? Do you have a favorite?