I'm all over the place at the moment and that includes what little stitching I've done. Between getting my little one ready and finally delivering her to university last weekend, trying to find appropriate Christmas markets to apply for and then trying to ensure that I have enough new stock for said markets, Etsy and my other stockists, there hasn't been much progress on any of my bigger projects. But I have finished the little bingata silk kimono fabric piece which I was stitching for this year's holiday journal. Last seen it looked like this:
I'd started to enhance the pattern with stitching and planned to put a needlelace koi in the middle to remind myself of the lovely koi in the pond at the Japanese garden we visited near Newquay. I carried on adding the stitching, which was only a few more elements on the bottom right and then, having found a suitably sized and oriented koi image online, I started by back stitching the basic outline of the head and body.
Next I worked Corded Brussels stitch across the body in a lovely subtly variegated orange thread courtesy of Debbie, and before I got to the base of the tail, stuffed it very lightly with a tiny scrap of wadding before I closed the stitching. .
I'm really pleased with how subtle the colour transition of the thread is from nose to tail. Next stage was to take a deep breath and add the tail (blanket stitch), fins (nested fly stitch) dorsal fin (chain stitch variant) and little stab stitches for his eyes and mouth.
As I followed the image I'd been copying religiously, the various appendages turned out perfectly, really bringing the twist of the body to life. And of course, the obligatory photo with a finger for scale!
Two pieces down for this year's holiday journal, but a number of more challenging ones yet to be started...
No comments:
Post a Comment