Major Milestone

A short post, but I just want to celebrate the fact that I'm almost half-way through Bramble and the Rose. *Cue fireworks*

I'm not quite at the half-way mark, but what's a few or 50 stitches when you're looking at the bigger picture. 

I was looking at my records and I started this piece the day before I flew out to South Korea on April 19, 2013. Since then it's been all over the place with me, if I traveled anywhere I packed it to go with me. The only time I worked on it when I wasn't travelling was New Year's eve. It took me 7 years to get to this point but that's okay. It's a marathon, not a sprint!

Speaking of sprints, I think Midnight Meander will get finished very quickly. I worked on it for a few hours on Sunday and progress on the stems were going pretty fast. I just need a good few days to just sit and stitch, and it will be done in no time. 

Isn't it great timing that I will be on vacation starting tomorrow? I will be off for a week and a half, chances are I will not post an update next week as I will be avoiding my computer. I will be posting on my Instagram account, so you can follow me there.

Midnight Meander - Flower 2 & Fruit

The last time I shared an update on Midnight Meander, I had completed the second flower.

The third element in the piece is a fruit. Not sure what type, it looks like a mixture of grape and pomegranate. I played around with the stitching order on this element, as I like to finish the foundation before putting in beaded outlines. I really love using my beading koma for this.

After stitching the two flowers, there wasn't any new technique in the fruit. It re-uses stitching techniques from the other two so this one went pretty fast. The outer "petals" took a little more thinking to make sure the satin stitches followed the curve nicely.

I did make one more change. The little crescent shape at the bottom of the fruit is stitched with bullions. Since I don't particularly like bullions and there were none any where else in this piece, I decided to replace it with buttonhole stitch and filled the gap with satin stitch. This is the same technique that was used in the first flower, so I didn't feel like I was changing the design too much.

At this point the piece is well on it's way to completion. All that's left are the leaves and stems, which means lots of beading in my future.

Good Weekend, Good Progress

I met with my Japanese embroidery group over the weekend. We're still doing it over zoom due to social isolation but it was nice to see everyone and stitch together. In our last meeting I didn't do any embroidery as I wasn't feeling up to it, so I was very happy to finally get back into my piece. Especially after seeing the progress my friend has been making on hers. Really gave me the kick I needed.

We spent a lot of time talking about other JEC pieces we would like to stitch. I've already selected two I would like to work on. I've started compiling a wishlist so I don't lose track. I think I might reward myself with a piece when I finish Hiogi.

For this session, I decided to concentrate on completing the shippo cloud. I was surprised by how fast the stitching went. One more session and it should be finished. All that's left is the final color, which is white. I'm toying with the idea of adding a strand of silver with the white silk to give it a bit of sparkle. My teacher also recommended I put in short holding stitches for the larger areas where the foundation is not covered.

Once I'm done with the shippo cloud, I'm going to move back to the pink cloud. I need to tie down all that foundation before I can do another attempt at cherry blossoms.

I made progress on Midnight Meander as well, but I think I will hold off on sharing my update until I finish the section I'm working on.

May TUSAL

Last month's TUSAL was very pitiful as to be expected. I will do better next month. I've continues to work on Bramble and the Rose, but I'm also back to working on Midnight Meander and finished the second flower. I used the right beads this time.

This Saturday is my monthly Japanese embroidery meeting, so I'm hoping to progress on Hiogi. I'm determined to get those shippos well on their way to completion.