A is for Assisi Embroidery

For the third letter in my alphabet series, I used my take on Assisi embroidery.

A is a mauvy-pinky-purply color, like a henley shirt I had as a teenager.  That shirt is long gone, but I have a beach towel that's almost the same shade.  I cut out a 2 by 3 inch rectangle from the edge and zigzagged the edges a couple of times, with a variegated quilting thread.

I also stay-stitched the cut-out, so the towel wouldn't unravel.

I then sketched out an A in a blue wash-out marker and started stitching:

Traditionally, in Assisi embroidery the motif is outlined with a back stitch or Holbein stitch, and the background is filled in with cross stitch, but why be traditional?  I used seed and straight stitches to fill in the background, using Caron Collections' Watercolours and Wildflowers threads in African Sunset (so pretty).

A close up: