Japanese Embroidery Phase 2-3 - Class Day 2

On the second day of class, we went right into the shippo cloud. A shippo is formed by a group of four ellipses. As we're stitching on top of an existing foundation, we don't want our stitching to sink and get lost. Padding is applied to help with that.

I had the opportunity to use rice past glue for the first time. The texture is quite nice and not as annoying as craft glue, which runs everywhere. I will have to use it more in future for finishing projects.

The ellipses are glued onto the foundation using the grid I put in as a guide. To ensure they don't shift, even though the glue is pretty solid, the ellipses are couched into place.

We were meant to stitch in at least one ellipse, but my mind wouldn't work. After several frustrating attempts, I decided I wanted to move on and the teacher was ready to do so anyways.

This next technique is going to be a favorite of mine. It's called fuzzy effect and it's so pretty. I still need to put in the tacking stitches which will hold everything down, but I love looking at it. I can't wait for phase 8 (I'm a long way off) as the piece is done entirely with fuzzy effect.

We still had time at the end of the day, so I made another attempt at the ellipse. This time things clicked a little better and I was able to make a decent attempt. Now I just need to figure out what color each ellipse will be.

After the second day of class, I have everything I need to stitch the shippo cloud and finish the top right snow flake. There is a second snow flake at the bottom but it's located behind cords so will have to wait till later.