Almost done

Finished the lilies of the valley, the edgings and the stems. Before I put in the stems, my son commented that the lilies looked like the ghosties from PacMan.

I was really worried about the one lily that sits on top of the heavy tulip stem, and was considering putting it behind the stem instead. But then I figured that Kay might fail me for doing that ;-) It turned out reasonably well, even the edging.

After doing lots of cuts of the pearl purl for the edgings, it finally occurred to me (duh!) how to fix the magnolia bud. I need to cut the purl to make it lay flat. Here's the redid bud.

Finally removed all the tissue paper. On the home stretch now, only thing left to do is the butterfly!

Don't want Pookie to feel left out, so here he is.

The pearl purls on the edges of the lilies of the valley look really cute! And rather easy to do.

Getting close to being done!

Tulip stems

I'm glad to be done with the Grecian twists. The second time was somewhat easier - 20 minutes to sink and whip instead of 40 minutes yesterday! The small stem for the bud was actually the hardest since it is so short. It's fortunate that I did this one last.

Finished the magnolia stem with couched #5 passing gold, and the stem bud with pearl purl (or purl purl). It was initially fun working with this new thread, as it involves stretching it carefully to twice its length. But it doesn't turn the corner very well and I tried to help by stretching it a little more around the corners. It looks bad, I will have to redo it,  but then there is no guarantee I'll do better the second time...

The tulip stem is a Grecian twist. It took some serious convincing to sink the ends to the back! A sinking needle did not work. I taped the end to make a point, made a large hole with the tekobari, pushed on the top and yanked with tweezers on the bottom. Whip stitching the ends on the back was difficult also, I finally taped the 2 ends to the back of the fabric before I was able to whip stitch them.

I am all tired out after fighting with the Grecian twist; quitting early.

Finished the crab apple flowers, including blossoms, chip centers, leaves, branches, calyx, and removed the basting threads that were showing. Was a little apprehensive about chipping the check purls, and so I did a practice chip center on the side. I think it turned out ok. I had to look up the instructions for "radiating satin stitch", used for the bud calyxes. I thought it meant radiating out from one point, but that's not so.

Worked the magnolia stems and calyx.

What it looks like now. Will be working on the magnolia leaf next.

Finished the crabapple blossoms and the buds. I was trying hard to make nice round buds, as I was inspired by the perfect bud that a JE friend (Pamela H) made for her Wedding Shellbox. Alas no, they won't turn out perfectly round. I will need to practise, practise, practise!

Yoshi saying "You're at it again!?"

I don't take as many pictures of Coco as Yoshi, so here he is.

Finished the crabapple leaves today. When I started to bend one leaf, it got totally outside the outline, but since the bend was ok I let it go. I also redid this leaf 3 times.

Got stopped at this point with a question to the class leader regarding the braid couching.

Almost finished all the crab apple blossoms. May wait till later to add the chipped gold flower centers. It's something new and will be interesting.

The Eterna silk thread behaved perfectly today! When I was doing this in winter, the silk thread would pick up static, splay out and snag on the frame. I hated it then. Today the silk was so nice that I was able to use a 24-inch single ply and split-outline all the pink crab apple flowers, and the silk was still in perfect shape at the end, and it was not clinging every which way.

Details of crab apple padding.

Yoshi keeping me company on my other JE stand.

Didn't want to quit today! I was "in the zone". I am quite pleased with the way the crab apple blossoms are turning out. Partly it is because of the well behaving Eterna silk, and partly due to the glass laying tool shown here. I have only used the tekobari after starting JE, and I have never used a laying tool before. But this glass laying tool is wonderful! Not to mention beautiful. Its tip is smooth so the silk slides down easily, and it is not sharp! Sometimes when I use the tekobari if I'm not careful I'll snag the adjacent satin stitches and mess up the silk.

Finished the leaf on the left side. The leaf tip isn't too good, but hopefully it is shiny enough that it is not obvious. When I tried to make a sharp turn, the metal gold thread unravelled and got twisted.

Redid the right top section of the right leaf. Instead of doing round and round couching, I sunk the ends for each turn-around. The shape is nicer now.

Back to Spring's Splendor

I noticed I had problems after a hiatus of several months. I didn't realize how bad the section was until I saw the photo. The 2  round-and-round couched gold sections at the top of the leaf do not look right, particularly the rightmost top section. May have to re-do it later.

I then started on the round-and-round couched gold on the opposite side - the work in progress. This is somewhat better, although the spacing of the couched stitches are not totally correct. Won't know if this is acceptable till I get further along. Bummer!