Surprisingly addictive, embroidery
Monday, 14 June 2010 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobsterdesignstThe feathers are now hopefully sorted, with whipped running stitch in the antique gold metallic and its matching non-metallic (three strands of the former over two of the latter). I've done a bit of the left wing and it's looking fine so far. Quite a subtle effect, but I think you'll definitely realise that they are wings when it's done.
Meanwhile, I've been working on the clumps of papyrus that will be to either side of the plinth. Somehow I ended up peacefully embroidering until gone midnight last night! (I'm getting through my current audiobook, Gone With the Wind, surprisingly fast for a 43 hour book.) I don't have all my embroidery threads yet, and I think I'll need slightly different colours, as the blue and the green are too close at the moment.
Version 1, withe a darker, more reddish orange, a second blue on the far right flower edge, and a few other threads lurking around here and there, as well as a wide variety of stitches.
I wasn't happy with the buds no matter what I tried, so I did another version with all flowers instead. This has only three threads used (a slightly lighter, more yellowy orange) and consistent stitches throughout.
It fills the space better, but I think it's a little rigid. So I've printed out every fresco and even cheapie reproduction with papyrus on it that I can find, and here's the latest sketch.
I'll wait until my threads turn up to try this one, I think. It's a lot more informal than the second version, and may be too informal for the quilt, but I'd like to see what I can do with it. The order would probably run, from the left, both buds in blue, then orange-blue-orange-blue-orange for the flowers, then the last bud in blue. This does give me two blues in a row (bear in mind that a blue flower takes a green stem, an orange flower takes an orange stem), so I'll have to think that one through. Also the flowers have changed in shape (for the better, I think) and I'm not quite sure how well they'll work with the stripes done in cross-stitch. Should be manageable, though. Another bonus of this design is that I can make it a bit different on the right, which I'd quite like. Egyptian paintings of papyrus and such range from the very formal to the relatively wild, and there are some really lovely ones out there.
What do you think, folks?
Meanwhile, I've been working on the clumps of papyrus that will be to either side of the plinth. Somehow I ended up peacefully embroidering until gone midnight last night! (I'm getting through my current audiobook, Gone With the Wind, surprisingly fast for a 43 hour book.) I don't have all my embroidery threads yet, and I think I'll need slightly different colours, as the blue and the green are too close at the moment.
Version 1, withe a darker, more reddish orange, a second blue on the far right flower edge, and a few other threads lurking around here and there, as well as a wide variety of stitches.
I wasn't happy with the buds no matter what I tried, so I did another version with all flowers instead. This has only three threads used (a slightly lighter, more yellowy orange) and consistent stitches throughout.
It fills the space better, but I think it's a little rigid. So I've printed out every fresco and even cheapie reproduction with papyrus on it that I can find, and here's the latest sketch.
I'll wait until my threads turn up to try this one, I think. It's a lot more informal than the second version, and may be too informal for the quilt, but I'd like to see what I can do with it. The order would probably run, from the left, both buds in blue, then orange-blue-orange-blue-orange for the flowers, then the last bud in blue. This does give me two blues in a row (bear in mind that a blue flower takes a green stem, an orange flower takes an orange stem), so I'll have to think that one through. Also the flowers have changed in shape (for the better, I think) and I'm not quite sure how well they'll work with the stripes done in cross-stitch. Should be manageable, though. Another bonus of this design is that I can make it a bit different on the right, which I'd quite like. Egyptian paintings of papyrus and such range from the very formal to the relatively wild, and there are some really lovely ones out there.
What do you think, folks?
