goldenrod and morning glories make such a perfect pair. the bright yellow and deep blues always catch my eye when i'm out walking, and the colors really pop against the faded browns and grays of plants going dormant for the winter.

as i tend to do, i'm starting my morning glory hoop with something super simple - outlining the goldenrod stems and leaves with back stitch / 2 strands. i'm using the darkest green floss here.
and these delicate goldenrod flowers are made using a single strand, and star stitch.

while i'm working on this part, i'm also looking at the other areas of the design and thinking about what stitches i want to use where. i try to envision how/if different types of stitches will work for certain shapes, how they'll look next to other stitches and other areas.

+

i am planning to fill these morning glory flowers using 4 colors, starting with the darkest blue (shown here). 2 strands and satin stitch (fan your stitches slightly) for these triangular areas.

for the overlapping flower areas, i'll stitch the morning glory first, and then freehand stitch the goldenrod stem and flowers on top.

+

for the petals i'm satin stitching again, using 2 strands. to begin, i'm making a rough outline with back stitch, and then, working from the center outwards, embroidering each section of the flowers, one at a time.
this part is going to take a while, but that's ok. good things take time.
💙

i want these flower centers to have a nice contrast with the petals, so i chose a very light blue and an off-white floss.

for the blue shapes, i've just stitched long straight stitches along each side of the star-shaped center. (2 strands) some of the flowers have a larger center, so for those i added another set of star-shaped straight stitches, to fill in the area a bit more.

the very center is done using star stitch (just like those goldenrod flowers) using 2 strands of the off-white floss.

+

when satin stitching, you want to keep all of your stitches parallel with no overlapping.
so, to fill these heart-shaped leaves with satin stitch (2 strands) you'll want to "step" your stitches. at first, it may look like the edges are jagged, but once this shape is filled, the satin stitches will be even and smooth.

see those stepped edges on the heart shapes? i told you it would all work out. 😉
to give these leaves a bit more dimension and texture, i'm going to back stitch outline with a single strand of the light green.
i'm also using that same strand to stitch the veins, using fern stitch (which is kind of like star stitch. all 5 stitches share one point, right at the top of the heart shape).

when i filled the morning glory flowers, i covered up some of the goldenrod stems. now that the MGs are done, i'm freehand stitching the end of the goldenrod stem and flowers. stitching right on top of the MG stitches.

and that's it! all done with this one, and it really is lovely, don't you think?

if you need a refresher for some of these stitches, check out my stitch library.

+++++

learn more about stitch club here!