Hydrangea petals

I re-read the descriptions for Japanese scrolls, and realized that top flat gold section should be twice the height of the bottom flat gold section. I think the best proportions would be 3 rows at the top and 2 rows of checkerboard at the bottom. I will wait till the stitching is done before correcting the flat gold. Bummer!
Did a few more hydrangea petals.

The non-business end of my glass laying tool functions very well as a burnisher!

Flat gold fences

Moving along, still slow, but not as much un-stitching as before.

Flat gold solved!

I am so happy I've figured it out! Here's the story.

During class with Kay Stanis, she told me that the flat gold starts at the 2nd hole from the left void, then weft layer at every other "valley" (actually hole, as the Ro fabric does not have defined valleys), and end up adjacent to the subsequent (right) void, for a total of 5 laid flat gold's.
Here's my fabric much expanded, with the needle I use for the flat gold. When I counted the weft threads between voids I have 12 threads! That means I end up with 1 hole remaining! I went back to look at Kay's piece, and her Ro fabric has 11 threads between voids, not 12!! That was my EUREKA! moment.

So the moral is, for the Ro fabric with flat gold, count to see how many threads there are between voids, and adjust accordingly.

Another problem is the size of the needle. As the flat gold requires the largest needle that I have (one size smaller than the sinking needle), the point of the needle is not as sharp as I would prefer, which makes it more difficult to poke precisely.

Also the flat gold, while not delicate, cannot be un-stitched more than 2 or 3 times, before it starts peeling or crimping.

I am finally getting to the point where I make progress with the flat gold. And it's looking decent.

Flat gold detail.

According to Kay, the backside of the flat gold (on the underside of the piece) should be flat, and not twisted, and I need to work on that; although that is not a flaw (in my opinion) that requires un-stitching.

Flat gold

I measured the distance between the flat gold; it amounts to 1.2 mm apart. It is very difficult to space out this distance. Some of the difficulties came from the width of the flat gold. I also tried to insert pins at the correct distance but that wasn't workable either. Finally I gave up and just did the best - and with practice, actually it was starting to look ok. (Whew!!)
Initial attempt:

Where I left off today- the fence on the right side looks better than that on the left side:

The frame for Kenny came, so here he is in his new frame.

I also framed Betty. I like Betty better than Kenny.

Fence posts, fence

I finished the fence posts, and started on the flat gold fencing. It was horrible. It was almost impossible to see every other valley of the fabric to stitch the flat gold. It took at least 5 tries. I stopped taking it out not because it was done well, but because I got tired and it was not improving. The couching was also not good. Maybe I'll try not going for the valley and just measure the distance between the flat gold.

Falling Stars, Camellia

I spent 2 days of class on Camellia, and 2 days on Falling Stars, with Kay Stanis.
Camellia was not easy (is anything in JE ever easy?!) I had to re-do the first petal at least twice before it was somewhat acceptable. The technique is stylized long and short stitch (realistic alternate Ra), with conflicting instructions - one book says to come up and split the thread, the other says to go down and make a noticeable divot, and Susan Stevens book says either way is ok. I decide I don't want the divots, so I'll stay with coming up for the whole piece. I had to draw in the stitch lengths to get them to come out reasonably even. - And I thought I knew how to do long-and-short stitch...

A close-up of the petal. Looks like I need to do some fixing on the left side. The rest of the petal is not perfect but I'll live with it.

Next is Falling Stars. Here's what the JEC book shows:

Kay said that flat gold is a Phase XI technique! Ouch ouch ouch! I had difficulty seeing the every other valley that the flat gold needs to sit on. The Ro fabric is nice to work with though.

I haven't decided whether I want to work exclusively on one, or the other, or alternate between the two.