Growing spring daisies
It has been a beautiful spring weekend here and although it feels like I have been busy all weekend, I am not entirely sure what I have been busy doing. Do you ever feel like that on a Sunday evening?
I have been managing to squeeze in a little bit of stitching on the Or Nue Daisy during the week, but when I went to pick up the needle today, I was just too tired to see it properly. We had a great evening with friends last night and it would seem that I am starting to find it a challenge to get to bed at 2am and being able to focus on really fine work the next day.
On the bright side, I am discovering the real bonus in recording the progress of the daisy here. The circumference has grown to just over 10cm (4") and it is so, so slow. It takes well over half an hour to stitch one round now. Stitch after stitch, it feels like I am getting nowhere, so it is rather nice to be able to compare progress pictures and see that it IS growing!
You might notice that there are few new lines on the petals to shorten them! Well, I am starting to realise this piece, though only 6.5cm (2 1/2") in diameter, is kind of big for a 'I might just try this' kind of project, so making it slightly smaller seems like a good idea.
I also realised that the outline - which I am certain was a neat circle when I started, suddenly seemed slightly oblong and when retracing the circle, a few of the petals came very close to edge. I want to have a couple of rounds of gold around the flower, possibly couched down with a spring green silk, so rather than making the whole piece larger, I decided to shorten all the petals just a bit.
You might remember that I was in two minds about which gold thread to use; a 371 couching, which is what I chose, or a passing thread. The couching thread is proving to a bit of a challenge. It is very, very soft and even though I try to be really careful, I have still managed to damage it in a few places so that the thread-core shows through. Rather disappointing, really. It is not enough to give up on whole thing and I am not sure that anyone would really pick it - but I know it is there and it bugs me.
The silk on the other hand, is just great. It is so fine, almost like hair. I really don't know if I would have been able to get the rounds this close if I had been stitching with a heavier thread. The gaps you see between the rounds in the tight photograph are hardly visibly when you look at the piece as a whole....so over all; it is getting there. I just can't wait now to finish the rounds and get to the centre - I have some hopefully fun plans for that.
In the meantime, since my eyes refused to focus on this sort of thing today, I did manage to finish two small crewel projects. I will show them to you later in the week.
Until then - happy stitching,
Anna x
I have been managing to squeeze in a little bit of stitching on the Or Nue Daisy during the week, but when I went to pick up the needle today, I was just too tired to see it properly. We had a great evening with friends last night and it would seem that I am starting to find it a challenge to get to bed at 2am and being able to focus on really fine work the next day.
On the bright side, I am discovering the real bonus in recording the progress of the daisy here. The circumference has grown to just over 10cm (4") and it is so, so slow. It takes well over half an hour to stitch one round now. Stitch after stitch, it feels like I am getting nowhere, so it is rather nice to be able to compare progress pictures and see that it IS growing!
You might notice that there are few new lines on the petals to shorten them! Well, I am starting to realise this piece, though only 6.5cm (2 1/2") in diameter, is kind of big for a 'I might just try this' kind of project, so making it slightly smaller seems like a good idea.
I also realised that the outline - which I am certain was a neat circle when I started, suddenly seemed slightly oblong and when retracing the circle, a few of the petals came very close to edge. I want to have a couple of rounds of gold around the flower, possibly couched down with a spring green silk, so rather than making the whole piece larger, I decided to shorten all the petals just a bit.
You might remember that I was in two minds about which gold thread to use; a 371 couching, which is what I chose, or a passing thread. The couching thread is proving to a bit of a challenge. It is very, very soft and even though I try to be really careful, I have still managed to damage it in a few places so that the thread-core shows through. Rather disappointing, really. It is not enough to give up on whole thing and I am not sure that anyone would really pick it - but I know it is there and it bugs me.
The silk on the other hand, is just great. It is so fine, almost like hair. I really don't know if I would have been able to get the rounds this close if I had been stitching with a heavier thread. The gaps you see between the rounds in the tight photograph are hardly visibly when you look at the piece as a whole....so over all; it is getting there. I just can't wait now to finish the rounds and get to the centre - I have some hopefully fun plans for that.
In the meantime, since my eyes refused to focus on this sort of thing today, I did manage to finish two small crewel projects. I will show them to you later in the week.
Until then - happy stitching,
Anna x
Love the or nue, something I want to do sometime.
ReplyDeleteI have the same experience that a design deforms even though I use a hoop and stitch very carefully.
I guess that it is just the way handwork behaves.
In theory it really shouldn't happen should it? This piece is so firmly in the hoop, so I am quite puzzled.
DeleteThis piece is developing beautifully! I don't know that I could do the rounds without getting confused - afraid I would be doing a lot of retro stitiching. But I am really enjoying watching your progress.
ReplyDeleteIt is really not as tricky as it might look - the main thing to remember is never, ever, ever to leave your working threads on the back.
DeleteI do like the slightly random and more natural patches of couched gold thread, rather than the more formal patches usually seen in circular Or Nue pieces - very suitable for a daisy! Lovely! Tho I feel your pain with the stripping of the #371.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you like the look of it. I wanted it to be less formal than the more traditional pieces and also hope to get the gold and silk to work as a whole, more so than have a coloured images over gold. Not sure if that makes sense.
DeleteGlad to hear someone is 'feeling my pain' of the error in choosing #371
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful piece!
Thank you Kimberly. I am really enjoying it whenever I can find time to work on it.
Delete