Progress

I'm happy with the way this magnolia petal turned out.

Self padding on the next petal.

I've been avoiding the Japanese embroidery as I have to start fading the cord, which is rather scary.

So Yoshi is showing me how nice it is to sleep on the Wedding Shell box piece on my JE stand. I provided a rigid platform on top of the frame just for this purpose.

Tulip and Magnolia Bud

This tulip bud turned out a lot better, once I was told the difference between a ply and a strand. This was done with the correct number of ply's.

The padding for the magnolia bud.

The finished magnolia bud. I think it turned out rather well.

More cords

Finished the cord on the right side, the one above the box top. I'm not totally happy with the fading of the pink to gold to red. It looks like a mistake, though it is intended to tie in to the red cord on the left side. As usual I'll sit on it and see if it "improves" by itself...

Wedding Shellbox

Decided to switch back to the Wedding Shellbox today, hoping that I will improve on Spring Splendor when I get back to it.

I redid the edging to the front cord - the one beneath the box top. Fortunately the needle holes were not too obvious.

Second Tulip

Added felt padding to the flower. The small petals were somewhat difficult to do, being so small. The other thing I found was I shouldn't have gone out of the line too much (ie. encroach into the next petal). It was hard to remake the edge with the split stitch on top of the metal threads.

The 4 ply gold edging. I might redo this whole petal; the gold edge is too "even".

The finished flower. I always have trouble with long and short stitch realistic effect; I can't seem to get the angle right, or the colors to fade in naturally. The silk goes into the metal too evenly. I'm going to sit on it and see if I change my mind after I finish the next tulip bud.

Spring's Splendor

New year's resolution: keep track of my needlework progress. I want to publish periodic updates (at least once a week, ha!). I have "bent" my rule of only having ONE big project at one time. I now have 2 pieces on 2 JE frames. It's lucky that I will soon have 2 JE frames to accommodate one apiece. The current JEC piece is Phase 5 - Wedding Shellbox, and the other is a EGA GCC piece called "Spring's Splendor". Coincidentally both were designed by Kay Stanis.

Tissue basted for transfer - one of my least favorite things to do. Finished the initial work on the butterfly and covered it with tissue. This is much easier couching than JE, with 4 mm couching stitches!

First tulip - I only removed the tissue for the entity under work.

Tulip Finished