Dear me, it’s been a long time since my last post – I’ve been rather busy with other, non-sewing, things, so sorry about that. I’m getting back to my stitching now, though, so things should get back to normal soon. I’ve made a start on adding some colour, starting with the darkest shade, Madeira 1912,…
It’s taken a while, but the reworked shading on the stems – and so all of the embroidery – has been finished. Here’s half of the stems redone: And the rest: It’s made a big difference, and I’m glad I decided to over-stitch the too-pale bits. So that’s all the embroidery done. The next stage…
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t at all happy about the shading, or lack of it, for the stems, and needed to do something to improve them. Well, I think I have! Or started to anyway – there’s still a lot of stem to do. Still, I’m happy with the approach. I over-stitched the pale…
Sorry for the long gap between posts: blame a combination of being busy at work and watching the World Cup. Well I’ve (finally) completed the stems, and here they are: I say ‘completed’, but the shading really isn’t working at all and something needs to be done about that. I have an idea what to…
I’ve got half of the stems filled in in Madeira stranded cotton 2213, and I have to say it’s not looking like I’d wanted it to. Here’s the loop at the top: Hmmm… it’s not right, is it. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I carried on: No, definitely not right. The palest shade…
I’ve added a bit more shading, and have gone round the edge of all the stitching on the stems in one strand of 2211, the middle shade, and another of 2213, the darkest of the three: Next time, I’ll fill in the rest in 2213.
After my failed attempt to use Italian tubular mesh ribbon for the stems, I’ve reverted to regular stitching for them. What a relief! I’m using three shades of Madeira stranded cotton, 2208, 2211 and 2213: I outlined the edge of the stems with the darkest of the three, 2213, in split stitch rather than stem…
The leaves are finished, and I must say that I’m very happy with them. There wasn’t much to do to finish them off, with just the central areas of the each leaf and a little detailing to do. For the central area, I used one strand of Madeira 1411 (the medium shade) and one of…
I’m adding some shading to the leaves, using one strand of the the lighter colour I used first, Madeira 1410, and one of the next shade, 1411. As before, I’ve tried to make the edge uneven, to help blend it in. So, here are the leaves on the right with the first shaded area added:…
I want the leaves to be shaded, so first of all I’m adding the lightest colour, Madeira 1410, in a band around all of the leaves other than the two very small ones at the bottom, worked in long and short stitch using two strands. I’ve tried to make the inner edge ragged, so that…