Embroider-bee!

Happy New Year all and welcome to my first Visible Image DT post of 2025.  Our theme this week is “The Great Outdoors/Wildlife” and this is my non-card project.  After watching an Instagram short showing an embroidered fluffy bee, I decided I wanted to have a bash at one.  The large bee from Bee Happy was the perfect size for my project.

I had a piece of grey Belfast linen for the background and stamped the image.  I wasn’t sure how well the image would stamp so I used my large MISTI so that I could repeat stamp if necessary.  I also used Archival ink as it would dry quickly and not smudge later when working on the embroidery. (The little bee was my practice to see how well it would stamp.)

Hoops really help your embroidery to have a nice finish as the background fabric doesn’t get warped.

The bee is made fluffy by using turkey work embroidery.  I watched a few YouTube videos to work out how to do this.  It’s a series of loops of thread, each anchored in place with a small lock stitch.  Once all the loops are in place, the loops are snipped and then the tufts of threads are sheared to the appropriate length using small, sharp scissors.

After I’d completed the body and trimmed it, I then added the legs and antennae.

To make the wings sparkle, I used a silver metallic thread and backstitched the veins and used a stem stitch for the outline.

I had planned to add in some flowers or grasses but decided that I didn’t want to detract from the bee so just added some clear glass seed beads randomly.  The finished piece was mounted in a box frame and hung on my craft room wall.

The bee has so much texture and I love the sparkle of the wings too!