It has been a while since I took part in an Aurifil challenge. Recently they have been geared towards hand stitching or quilting and although in these days of lockdown there is a thought that we are all supposed to be learning new skills, I passed up the chance in favour of this one! A project in our favourite weight of Aurifil thread. Mine is the cotton weight 50 and this embroidery shows off the fabulous range of colours on offer.

I have been revisiting images of fruit and vegetables recently and I was drawn to these bright red raspberries. I was intrigued by the subtle colour changes and the structure and form of the berries with their individual little spheres. A challenge!

I designed and painted a silk base of these sunlit raspberries with the intention of only stitching three berries and 2 leaves. I stretched it in a hoop ready to stitch and selected the range of Aurifil threads I would need. I love the range of tones available which help to give my work its 3 dimensional look.

This set of four images shows the progression of this piece. First of all I worked the stems in parallel rows of straight stitch in shades of green and yellow. The berries are worked with a curved line of zigzag in each colour, starting with the darkest tone and then overlapping each subsequent colour a little. As each colour has been added to the berries they became more realistic and 3 dimensional.

This is now complete and needs stretching and framing to set it off to the best advantage. Thanks Aurifil, it was my pleasure!