Camellia

I am not fond of this piece, so I find it  hard to get going and keep at it. For some reason the fabric is hard to work with, being stiffer than normal.

There is a little kink on the bottom right of the right petal. But I think I'm going to leave it alone, and call it a natural part of the petal. Did I mention I am not wild about this piece?

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.