Saturday, August 5, 2017

A Surprise in the Post

I came home from work Thursday to find a surprise in the post from Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. She had mentioned that she mailed something to me but I had no idea what. So when I got the envelope I was very curious. Look at that lovely card! Jo, how did you know I love rabbits =D and you have a lovely hand writing.


Many years ago, Jo took a goldwork class at a summer school in London. The class kit was put away for many years as life got in the way. She found it when she was going through her stash and though of me :)


The kit came with plenty of metal threads to finish it and a piece of paper with the instructions on it. It's really a diagram with arrows showing where each thread is used. Underneath it is a list of steps to follow. It looks like a great beginners class design wise, but the take home instructions could have been more meaty. Luckily, there are now plenty of resources online to fill in the blanks.



In class, Jo did all the padding for the body and the little tear drops. I'm especially interested in the body of the butterfly as the padding is much more substantial than on my Pearl Butterfly. I'll have to read the instructions more carefully to see what was used. The couching with the pearl purl around the tear drops and most of the chipping is done.


I'm surprised they included a huge amount of couched passing thread as it's very hard for beginners. Jo did really well on that. I don't know if I could have done so good when I was first starting with embroidery. The back is really neat as well. My favorite part I think is that curled smooth purl on the body. I'd love to know how that first stitch was put in.


Thank you Jo for the lovely gift. I will definitely stitch it as the design is quite pretty and I love butterflies. The one thing I would change is I will add a backing fabric. The metal threads needs more support.

3 comments:

  1. What a lovely surprise! I'm sure you will do a wonderful job of finishing it off.

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  2. I am so pleased that it arrived safely and that you like it! It was too nice to sit in a drawer for another 20 years. Thank you for the compliments on my handwriting and my stitching too. I'd only been stitching for about 5 years at the most when I started that piece.
    How did I know you like rabbits? When I showed those cards on my blog you said "I love rabbits" so of course I knew exactly which card to choose to send to you. I do pay attention to my comments LOL

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  3. How lovely! It does look like a good start, and I'm sure you will enjoy finishing it off!

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