Nearly there

It's been really busy here over the last few weeks, we're moving house and had a lovely holiday in France over the half term holiday.

I'm off to Hampton Court on Saturday and it looks like it's all set fair for a sunny day so I'm planning my picnic and looking forward to another lovely day with Rachel and Owen.  I'm not sure how much stitching I will be doing as I think my Jacobean Crewelwork piece is almost finished!  I'll be seeking Rachel and Owens advice to find out if everything is up to RSN standards, if I need to rework any of it or add any further elements, but if not, ta dah!  I will then be on to mounting which fills me with dread I have to admit.  It's so important for a piece to be well mounted, as it can really spoke all the effort you have put in to making it if the mounting is careless or sloppy.  I know this from many years of mounting bobbin lace where there are some pieces I wish I had taken more time over, and some I'm really proud of.  So watch this space.  Here's the nearly finished piece- and I'd be really interested in other peoples views as I can mostly see what I don't like!  

I'm also going to be asking Rachel and Owen about my next piece.  I can't quite decide whether to go for blackwork or canvaswork but I think I've decided I want to use one of my holiday photos of lighthouses or carrelets from the Gironde.  

Perhaps one of these photos will be suitable......

Jacobean progress

I was looking back over my last few posts and realised I hadn't posted an update on my crewelwork for weeks, and it has moved on quite a bit since then, despite the demands of Easter, an imminent house move, and of course,the day job.

Time to put this right!  I'm going back to the RSN next weekend and with a very hectic week ahead, I've taken a few photographs of progress to date.

A shot of overall progress.  It's coming on ok, but I'm not happy with the purple long and short stitch leaf.  I'm loathe to take it out, but will be talking with my tutors about it on Saturday......

Fly stitch leaves with heavy chain stitch stems

French knots and more french knots

Progress on my Jacobean Crewelwork for the RSN certificate has been slow, mainly due to work and other family commitments (like a little girl's birthday I've been baking and icing cakes for :-)).  During the relatively few opportunities I have had to stitch- I've mostly been spending on french knots. A solid filling for two petals, and as a highlight in some open buttonholes on two others.

I've really enjoyed these two petals- the colours seemed to flow easily and the knots were quite soothing and meditative to stitch- good job as the solid filling took MUCH longer than I expected.

Here's an overview of where I'm up to now- I've actually finished the first couched outline and have the other couched petal outline to do.  

But first I have to decide on the seeding I'm going to use in a couple of the fillings.  Its a long story, but I had to take two petals worth out and start again.  Part of the mistake was the colour choice.  At least with some idea of how the tulip is turning out, I should be able to make a better choice of colour combinations.  

Speaking of colour choices I have to decide whether to stitch my "white" hart in a very pale blue, with a gold crown, or the palest gold, with a darker gold crown.  Originally, I was going to go with pale blue, but I'm having second thoughts.  Decisions decisions!