Thursday, February 08, 2007

So many projects, so little time...

I am busy working on a more complicated than usual TAST sample this week, but in the meantime I wanted to share some of the different things I've been working on lately.

I finished another 3-D stumpwork flower.
ktj asked me what size they were, so here are all three I've done so far with a ruler:

My daughter had some time this weekend to draw me a dragon to stitch to put in the middle of her CQ pillow. I decided to try to imitate scales by covering the dragon in detached chain stitch (TAST 3 so I'm in practice). I've used some dark blue variegated DMC floss with a strand of peacock blending filament. I hate blending filament but it looks nice - hard to see in the photo but in real life it just gives a bit of extra depth to the colour.

I've also been working on this year's President's Challenge for my EGA chapter. Some Stitching Post members may remember that I wanted advice on what to put in a fabric envelope, because the challenge is to stitch an envelope and send a token gift to another member in it. The recipient is a secret until it arrives. It also has to have a holiday theme - although any sort of special day will do (maybe Talk Like a Pirate Day?). So I'm sending a spring envelope. This scene - based on some DMC charts - is under the envelope flap so it won't get ruined in the mail. It has been fun to design the envelope, but now I have to line it and sew it up so I hope it works!

7 comments:

celeste said...

Your daffodil is breathtaking!

Margaret said...

Thanks Celeste. After the fight I had doing the bullion picot around the edge of the trumpet and forming the trumpet I was happy to see it work out as well as it did.

Grangry said...

You did a lovely job on that daffodil!

Anonymous said...

Margaret, your daffodil is stunning...all three are amazing and the bouquet when finished will be a real masterpiece and heirloom,.

I love the envelope! It is just so sweet....what a wonderful idea that EGA thing was.

Your daughter is quite the artist! That drawing is so very good. Be sure and tell her please that someone saw it and raved. I was never that good in the drawing dept! I have a hard time seeing the stitches you are using for the scales although i know you said they were detached chains....would love to see this close up.

ktj

Anja´s Wunschpunsch said...

I like your stumpwork and I know how much work it is. I have make a elephant and it has a long time to finish it.

Lin Moon said...

I just discovered your blog and know this is a long time ago - I am very impressed with your daffodil - it is the best I've ever seen! I was wondering why 3D stumpwork always uses white felt? Wouldn't it look better if you used felt the same color as a flower (for instance), so that those little edges blend in? Or is there some thing I'm just not getting?

Margaret said...

It is actually fine white linen behind most stumpwork and we use it mainly because there isn't coloured linen fine enough to use for this type of work. One way to cover this up is use a micron or other pigment pen in the colour of your floss to colour the linen. Also, if you do buttonhole needlelace, you won't need the fabric backing like you do with satin stitch, so you have no linen to worry about - the linen just acts as a base for your pattern. I do know of people using coloured fabrics to avoid the white edging. As one of my needlework friends says, "There are no needlework police" - so feel free to do what works for you.