Botanical Penstemon

It's almost the end of June and the penstemons are fading. Most of them have now gone to seed.

However, I was finally able to stitch a penstemon!

One of my drawings was easily turned into a cross-stich chart with only cross-stitches - no half stitches or outlines. But, for the word "penstemon" I had to use both cross-stitches and backstitches - otherwise the word would not have fit.

The design was sized to fit in a specific frame. But, if the word "penstemon" is left off, it will fit in a standard 4 x 6 frame. The color of the word "penstemon" was also determined by the frame. Why not try to coordinate? The other colors were harder to choose because penstemons come in so many colors.

I finally used purples - the same color as the penstemons in my yard. However, penstemons come in many other colors: white, yellow, orange, pink and red, to name a few.

I used 3 different purples for the flower and 3 for the leaves and stems. Next time I want to try it with just 2 overdyed threads to see how that turns out.

What colors would you use? This pattern is for sale at Patternsonline.com.

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Erica's Stitches

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