elizabeth_mn

I finished the tree piece in this set. I might go back and add a little more detail, but I’m not sure, and anyway all the main parts are done.

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do the leaves and left them until last. I tried a backstitch, stem stitch, and satin stitch, but none of them had the effect I was going for. I finally decided to just use a plain simple lazy daisy stitch, and it’s perfect.

Here’s a little peek.



Now I’m going to go back to the urn piece to add more detail to the flowers. I don’t want to photograph them in their completed state until they are framed and totally done. Which means I need to get around to painting the frames, too.

The urn so far. 



The design I started with had this odd little stylized filler piece at the base of the stems, but I couldn't figure out how I wanted to embroider it, and when I tried to stick a piece of applique on for it, it looked stupid, so I decided I would leave it off and just extend the stems down.

Well, that made the mass of stems look pretty scraggly, so I added an extra row of stitching on each flower stem to make them thicker.  The leaf stems are still just one row.

Cotton floss has a tendency to float on the surface of the fabric, which is sometimes nice but sometimes annoying.  With stem stitching, it means you see a row of floaty loops when looked at from any angle other than straight-on.  Pulling the floss tight only puckers the fabric.

I solved this by threading the tail through the running stitches (the backs of the stem sts) on the WS for the length of the stems.  This drew up the stitching on the back just enough to snug the cotton down on the RS and make it lie smooth.  Actually, the back looked so nice, too, that I think I will use a laced running stitch on the RS at some point in the future.