Embroidered panel: Ruskin Roses

My latest piece is finished and framed:

Embroidered panel: Ruskin Roses – full length

It’s an original design, but I was aiming for an Arts and Crafts look, hence the title!

It was worked using the same technique I’ve been employing for quite a few things lately: hand embroidered with Madeira stranded cotton in long and short stitch onto gold organza.

Hand embroidered rose bush design

A wash of dilute PVA glue was then applied to the back and once this was fully dry, the embroidery was cut out in a single piece using small sharp scissors – and a great deal of care.

Close up of embroidered rose detail

The cut out embroidery was then stitched to a background of ivory cotton velvet.

Detail of long and short stitched rose showing shading

It’s quite a large panel – around 75 cm (about 30″) in height framed, and the embroidery itself 65 cm (or 25″) high, so it took some time to complete: 110 hours in total.  I think I might do something a bit smaller next!