Beautiful, beautiful blue silk. Cornflower blues 250, 251 and 252 from Pearsall’s to be exact. I just love blue and blue silk is one of the most beautiful things to work with I can imagine.
There are four of these little bluebell like flowers on the cap, one at the top of each section. They are small – 1 and 1/8 inches or 3 cm from side to side. I began this first one using two threads but pulled it out after only a couple of stitches. The flower is too small for a double thread. I think that all the motifs in this design are too small for double threads.
I intend to savor every single stitch of this little cap. I’m hoping it will be a masterpiece that shows how my skills have developed over the last year and a half. Working slowly, carefully and almost meditatively will be my modus operandi.
Recalling my teachers saying that one must think about which part of the element is in the foreground, middle and background, I began with the dark blue center petal that’s covered slightly by the other petals.
First I outlined the bottom edge only of the shape with split stitch, then filled in the center with horizontal padding stitches. Leaving the sides of the shape without the defining split stitch will mean that the medium blue petals will stand above the single darkest one.
All of the petals are done in padded satin stitch with the stitch direction going from the top to the bottom of each petal. The longest 2 or 3 center stitches are split since the distance is too long for a single stitch. It would be likely to get caught and not lay flat.
Next I outlined in split stitch the two petals that are in the foreground. The split stitch outline will help me be sure to place the satin stitch of the middle ground petals in the right place. I inserted the needle into the fabric just outside the split stitch. Again, this will raise the foreground petals up and the top two, which are in the middle ground, will look as if they’re behind them.
I then split stitches the top edge and points of the middle ground petals, padded and satin stitched them. Lastly I padded and satin stitched the foreground petals. I would say my method was successful, n’ests ce pas?
I’ve gotten one and 1/5 flowers done so far. I decided to work this piece like a production line – do all of one motif then move on to the next. So I’ll do all the blue flowers first before I do anything else. That way I won’t be tempted to stop when one forth of the whole thing is finished because I can see what it looks like.
Oh! I just noticed I left out the center circle in the flower on the far right in the center. Better get that filled in! That flower, which looks a bit like Tudor Rose, will be worked in Gilt Sylke Twist using detached buttonhole stitch. I’ve always wanted to do this stitch but didn’t have a project going where I thought it would be a good fit for the design. Here I think it will be perfect!
I’m curious…how do you work large pieces with repeated motifs? Do you do all of the same motif first and then move on or do you do a section at a time? Any reason why you stitch it one way or the other.
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