We got snowed in this weekend! I dislike snow, except for the time it gives me alone time to stitch ;)
Saturday morning I got the chance to really start working on lesson 2 of Pearl Butterfly. For this lesson, there was more couching to be done this time with a gold twist thread.
The thread was really nice to stitch with and you can bend it this way and that much more easily than the purl pearl. This thread is one of the ones that need to be plunged into the fabric.
To keep things neat, I stitch one wing at a time making sure to plunge and clean up as I went so I wouldn't have any threads snagging. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the back to show you before I moved to the next step.
The final step of lesson 2 is long and short stitch using Au vers a soie silks. I've never stitched with this thread yet. I'd bought some when I was in Paris and I'm so happy I did. The thread is heavenly.
There was a lot of dithering before I started stitching. The last time I tried long and short stitch it didn't go very well at all. It was in 2013 at the Creative Festival and I couldn't figure out how to get my threads looking right. It was a very discouraging experience. I've since read up a lot on the subject and the one thing that stuck in my head (can't remember from where) was this: don't think of it as long and short stitch, think of it as long and longer stitch. And it worked! Maybe at the end of this project I'll finally have the courage to give needle painting another go.
I'm so happy with how it turned out. I still have the lower wings to stitch. This part, by the way, is very tiring. I can only do one wing a day and now that it's the work week I'm not sure how much progress will happen on it. Luckily I have two weeks to do it until the next lesson comes out.
Saturday morning I got the chance to really start working on lesson 2 of Pearl Butterfly. For this lesson, there was more couching to be done this time with a gold twist thread.
The thread was really nice to stitch with and you can bend it this way and that much more easily than the purl pearl. This thread is one of the ones that need to be plunged into the fabric.
To keep things neat, I stitch one wing at a time making sure to plunge and clean up as I went so I wouldn't have any threads snagging. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the back to show you before I moved to the next step.
The final step of lesson 2 is long and short stitch using Au vers a soie silks. I've never stitched with this thread yet. I'd bought some when I was in Paris and I'm so happy I did. The thread is heavenly.
There was a lot of dithering before I started stitching. The last time I tried long and short stitch it didn't go very well at all. It was in 2013 at the Creative Festival and I couldn't figure out how to get my threads looking right. It was a very discouraging experience. I've since read up a lot on the subject and the one thing that stuck in my head (can't remember from where) was this: don't think of it as long and short stitch, think of it as long and longer stitch. And it worked! Maybe at the end of this project I'll finally have the courage to give needle painting another go.
I'm so happy with how it turned out. I still have the lower wings to stitch. This part, by the way, is very tiring. I can only do one wing a day and now that it's the work week I'm not sure how much progress will happen on it. Luckily I have two weeks to do it until the next lesson comes out.
Yes, the "long and longer" does help. All the books I've ever seen have unhelpful diagrams that make it look more like brick stitch!
ReplyDeleteThis is so wonderful. I am really enjoying following your progress on this one. Your long/longer stitches look so neat to me.
ReplyDelete