Honeysuckle stumpwork

It always surprises me how different my embroidery looks once I get a picture of it up on the computer screen. Seeing the various options for finishing the stumpwork honeysuckle, made it really quite easy to decide what to do. I also really appreciate all the feedback I got - seems you were all as divided on what to do next as I was.

There is something about a 'blank canvas' behind my designs that really doesn't sit well with me. I am not sure why. I do like that a design stands out, but at the same time the fabric it is stitched on is such an important part of the whole thing that I like it when I can merge them a bit. 

The spangles were just too big. Even though those in the picture are only 2mm (1/16") in diameter, I still felt they looked much too heavy and they drowned out the delicate stamens on the flower. The specs of gold were kind of getting there, but still were not quite right.

So what did I do...?

Well I did work tiny specs of gold, but I scattered the stitches a lot more (why is random scattering so difficult to get to look good?) and instead of simple tiny straight stitches I worked them as minute upright crosses which gives each little stitch a bit of dimension. 

I am really happy with the result. Sitting it onto my original mood-board, it blends in nicely I think. 

Now the only thing that didn't go quite to plan was that I had hoped to mount the little piece into a paperweight...

Well both the wired leaf and the bee will get completely squashed if I do that. I have still laced it over a round disc and it could go onto the lid of a small pot. The project is destined for a class later in the year, so for now I will be popping it onto a frame so it can go on display.

It is nice to have the small version finished. You may remember that on my sketch pad was a much larger version of a honeysuckle, so guess what I am doing next...

I hope you too had a lovely weekend.

Anna x

Finished or not?

I need your help, please...

I thought it was finished and was just about to take the honeysuckle out of the hoop, when I suddenly thought that perhaps it needed a bit of 'something' sprinkled over the background fabric...?

Plain....

 A sprinkle of tiny gold...

                                                               A scattering of spangles...

What do you think?

Enjoy your Friday,

Anna x

Show & Share

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you might remember the Blue Birds and Berries that I stitched a little while ago. 

You may also remember that the piece was part of a larger project by UK based artist Nicola Jarvis. Several embroiderers around the world, were stitching pieces such as this from Nicola's designs to be part of a larger show "The Art of Embroidery: Nicola Jarvis and May Morris" at the William Morris Gallery in London from 6 July to 22 September. 

One of the other embroiderers is my friend Kathy Andrews from The Unbroken Thread. Kathy stitched a fabulous piece of crewel work for the project and shared her stitching journey in her usual delightful style of storytelling and images  This journey has now been compiled into a fabulous e-book and was released on Friday.

One of the things I really, really love about any stitching community, whether it being a local group or here in cyber-world, is the constant showing and sharing of what we are all working on and learning, and the dialogues of help and advice. Kathy, among other blog hostesses, often takes this to a whole new level.
If you didn't follow Kathy's story of The Acorn on her blog - or even if you, like I, did - this is a really lovely read. In addition to the story of acorn, it has little anecdotes, snippets of correspondence between Kathy and Nicola, and comment from readers and friends.

Of course you can scroll though the blog, but this little book is so well presented and much more enjoyable. PLUS and of course there is a plus... it includes the patterns and instructions to that you can stitch your own acorn. Isn't that great?

The pattern is provided as the full size, so there is no need to resize anything. The way Kathy has presented the instructions is just fabulous too. Each step of the stitching has been allocated its own page, which has a large detail image and a line drawing to support the written instructions as well as a reference back to Kathy's own story of stitching. You really can't ask for much more.

Enjoy your stitches,
Anna x