Parts C, D and E of the goldwork project completed the flower that's in close up here. I think it looks pretty good, but I did a couple of things wrong - instead of ending the couching every round on the lower leaf, I just kept going round with it. That led to some bumpiness. When I did it properly on the upper leaf, I left some gaps in the leaf on the wider parts. I really need practice! Hopefully I'll get some and some in person instruction, which I feel necessary, at the ANG seminar in Baltimore in August. Now on to part F!
It seems the dominant color of Part 2 is "Honeydew" Waterlilies. I've been getting to see it a lot. It's the light greenish background in these pictures. From what I heard from others, this part takes about forty hours to stitch, so I'll be on it a long time, probably until I go to France (hard to sink in, but only five weeks now). At first I didn't like the color, but it's growing on me. Progress is very visible too, which is always good for me.
I'm so behind! I think this is due in two months and I'm just starting it. It's a relatively new correspondence course called Tiramisu and I'm taking it through the Cyberstitchers Chapter of the EGA. I've decided to try out the soy luster, since I was given some as a gift. The color shown in this picture is Egyptian Lapis. I'll be using a Needle Necessities overdyed, too. Fabric is 32 count Meditation from Picture This Plus. Hopefully, it'll all mesh together well. The floss toss looks good, and the stitching is turning out okay, even if I did have to rip out the beginning of the second sea monster - I put it two stitches too far from the first. That's done now and the first band is actually almost done! The piece is all reversible blackwork. I'm not having too much trouble with it yet, but I haven't used the overdyed yet.
The sewing bird is beginning to look like a bird now. It's going according to schedule. I'm definitely mailing this out before I go to France, most likely in about three weeks. Hopefully I'll have the next one by then and be able to take it to France with me. This piece, by the way, is HUGE. It's about 25x30 inches. It'll look stunning when it's framed.
The strap is now officially 32 inches ... only 11 inches to go. I started doing the beadwork this week around the edge of the bag, but that was after this picture was taken, so you have to wait until next week to see it. The beading along the edges is rather tedious, but I'm sure it'll look nice. The end is in sight. All I have to do after the strap is finish the edging, make another circle for the rose, and put the rose together.
It seems Missy the cat wants to learn blackwork pretty badly. She does this kind of often ... gets on the needlework when it's being photographed. At least she doesn't get on it at other times. Tux, her brother, likes to knock over the goldwork and sit on it. I've discouraged both.
The corner is getting there ... I really like the colors, though I've decided I don't like the feel of NPI as much as I do Vikki Clayton's. There's a small part on the outer corner in this picture that needed frogging ... which is done now. This part is going to take a loooong time because there are four corners with this much stitching on them! Perhaps I'll get some caught up on rainy days in France. The part of Normandy we're in is known for a lot of rain, and no drought there like southern England. I really like working on this project more than I do the Midi, and I'm convinced it's partially the color of the background fabric. This light blue looks very good with the silks so far. There are still several colors I haven't used yet. Perhaps they're for the houses around the outer edge.
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Parts C, D and E of the goldwork project completed the flower that's in close up here. I think it looks pretty good, but I did a couple of things wrong - instead of ending the couching every round on the lower leaf, I just kept going round with it. That led to some bumpiness. When I did it properly on the upper leaf, I left some gaps in the leaf on the wider parts. I really need practice! Hopefully I'll get some and some in person instruction, which I feel necessary, at the ANG seminar in Baltimore in August. Now on to part F!
