Susan Bates - Designing the “Butterfly Blossom” Patterns for StitchableCards

Photo credits for moodboard: Purple flowers by Aki Nakazawa, White & Pink Flowers by Marivi Pazos, Background overlays by Sarah Gotol and Kier in Sight Archives on Unsplash. 

For my latest set of designs I’ve chosen to use a more pastel set of colours than I usually go for because I wanted to depict soft and delicate imagery, such as butterflies and pretty pastel coloured flowers.

Butterflies are so delicate and are a beautiful sight, as they flutter from one bloom to another, looking for nectar to feed on. The colours of the petals draw the butterflies to them and, as they feed on the nectar, moving from one plant to another, the flowers are pollinated. My butterfly is shown here in mid flight, searching for nectar. I’ve depicted it in the delicate shades of pink and lilac and yellow, to give a Spring-like feel. The pale green background adds to the overall feeling of calm in this design and is interspersed with tiny little flowers.

My next design shows a butterfly in its full glory, with its wings outstretched, so that you can see its lovely buttery yellows and subtle pink shades. The details of the markings on its wings are picked out in a darker pink backstitch thread, to add definition to the butterfly. The angle of the butterfly helps give this design a bit of movement. It’s depicted in flight amongst some pretty pink flowers. A soft blue background behind the butterfly suggests a pale blue sky.

For this third design I wanted to make use of the rectangular shape of the ‘Stitchables’ template by having some flowers shown growing vertically – e.g. hanging downwards from the top edge of the shape. The design was inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, which I love. In these prints the negative space is often very important – although of course the focus of a design is its subject. Here the
negative space helps the eye travel around the design. The flowers in this design are very loosely based on Wisteria, which flowers in late Spring. An abundance of purple flowers hang down from the tree branches and create a stunning display. I’ve tried to capture the essence of this in my design here.

The heart-shaped template can be the most tricky shape to design for – but I always try to think carefully about each design element and how they will sit in this shape to make a pleasing design. This time I’ve kept to the floral theme and placed a trio of flowers inside it. The flowers are based on Cherry blossoms. They also flower in Spring and when the flowers fall from the trees they make the most amazing carpet of pink flowers. Here my flowers sit on a violet coloured background, which makes the flowers stand out and creates a pretty, fun design.

All in all this was a very enjoyable set to design. I was able to include some of my favourite motifs and I got to try out a slightly different colour palette to my usual ones. I’m naturally drawn to strong, vibrant colours – but sometimes it’s nice to step away from what you usually do and try out something more pastel and subdued. However, I have thrown in some stronger colours too, to make the designs sing. I hope you have fun with these designs... happy stitching!