Rethinking

At last the Bamburgh Beach Wallhanging is finished. I used time waiting on the children’s activities at the weekend to get down to completing the label, which along with the hanging sleeve, as all there was to do.

Front:

Back:

And the label – lettering in stem stitch using fine silk on hand dyed cotton muslin which has been softly frayed out.

So that’s finished. I also finally got the turquoise sea glass canvas to the person who had commissioned it this week and she loved it! In fact she loved it so much she’s comissioned me to do another in golds, oranges and browns for a friend’s birthday and a bigger one for her lounge, which is wonderful. I really enjoy stitching these pieces and getting paid for them is even better!

However, the reticulated brass shisha has been a problem. I wanted to attach it to some blue silk shisha-style.

I laid down a collar of overlapping stitches in blue mercerised cotton thread and decided to go for an oversewn satin stitch as an edging.

It went well enough, at least at first. Nice even coverage.

But by the time I got to the end the stitches weren’t extending far enough over the brass to hold it in place to my liking. You can see it more clearly on the left in this photo.

I let it sit while I worked on other things but when I returned to it I still wasn’t happy so out it came – easily enough to vindicate my instinct to rethink it as the centre of a paisley.

I’ve always loved paisley shapes and I came across this one while googling leaf outlines for my friend’s buttons.

The silk is too dark to mark the outlines I needed so I’ve just stitched straight through the paper, which should come off easily enough when damped.

Split stitch in the centre, running stitch (to be whipped later) in blue and french knots on the outside edge. I’ll take the paper off when I’ve finished the french knots and should be able to fill in the other layers by eye. The shisha will sit in the very centre and I’ll finish this as a brooch.