Finishing - stumpwork and gold work

I've been finishing things!  Almost completely....

First up, remember I did some Stumpwork in a class?  Well I finished that.  First I had to finish the wings.  They were made separately to the main piece, using a piece of paper wrapped wire to form the outer edges and button hole stitched onto a lovely organza fabric.

The picture above shows them cut out.  I cut them out, then realised I was supposed to coat the back of the wire in glue!  Ooops... as long as people don't poke the piece, it should be OK!

And here it is all finished and mounted in a hoop as it's for my hoop gallery.

I made the ladybird by using a running stitch, then gathering it up tight to pull the edges round the back.  I stuffed it and sewed it closed.  I didn't do a great job with this, but it was hard!  It was stitched on Aida which isn't exactly a giving fabric.  I might have been better making it into a covered button!

The wires for the wings were poked through the fabric and tacked down on the back.  I'm really pleased with the final piece!  The wings are so lovely and shimmery in real life.

I also finished the goldwork that I started at a class.  There wasn't that much to do here.  The left mushroom was stitch with rococco, for which there were no instructions!  I guessed and couched it down.  I added the spankles and the pearl purl for the stem.

This isn't hooped up yet as I needed a 4" hoop and only have 3" or 5" ones!  I've now ordered some and will probably bind it with a gold or silver ribbon.

I had already finished my shadow work piece, but it's now mounted in its hoop.  There is a piece of green organza behind it which looks nice.

That was really hard to photograph and I don't think I was very successful!  So, just one more to hoop up and that's all 3 WIPs from embroidery classes done!

shadow work

Summer has been a flurry of embroidery workshops and new techniques.  In August wonderful mum and I went to a workshop in shadow-work at The Living Threads group.  Our tutor, Susan, was brilliant, very patient and with the ability to teach - very important that!

We worked on pieces of organdy.  Organdy is a cotton fabric that has a very stiff drape.  Organza is made from silk or man-made materials and is very frayey.  Yes, frayey is a word.  The fabric is quite transparent, so the stitches are on the back, showing through as a coloured shadow.  The photo above is the front of the work.  The photo below is the back.

We used perle cotton and herringbone stitch to stitch a row and a leaf shape.  That is all the technique that's involved!

We traced the pattern onto the fabric using a pencil, this was very easy as the fabric is ideal for this kind of work!  We then hooped up, adding in a piece of tissue paper to the front. The tissue was torn away a bit at a time and was to keep the fabric and work clean.

Here I used a pale blue to stitch my initial.  You can vary the look of the piece by stitching tiny stitches close together or bigger stitches further apart.  I was aiming for a closed block of stitching.

I used a darker blue for the flower then added yellow french knots.

Unbelievably, I left with a finished piece!  There was the perfect amount of time in the class to finish the piece.  But, and there was always going to be a but, I haven't framed it yet!  Ridiculous, I know.  I have a lovely piece of green organdy to put behind the stitching and I have a hoop of the right size... so why haven't I done it?