Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Stupwork revealed

Today is my mother's birthday, and since she was the intended recipient of my stumpwork rose, I can now show it to you all. You might remember some of my early posts on this project when I was just getting started, and how excited I was to be stitching another Inspirations project.

http://threadalongwithme.blogspot.com/2016/04/oh-boy.html

http://threadalongwithme.blogspot.com/2016/07/progress.html

I used the rose as my Colorado project, but needed to bring it back to Rhode Island to finish it up and get it in the mail. I have to admit, it is one of my favorite projects ever and I am eager to work on more stumpwork projects in the future. I think that as a result of this project and a few other recent insights, I've figured out where I want to go as an embroiderer. More on that in another post. Let me just show you how it all turned out.

First, here are all the pieces embroidered and cut off of their backing. The leaves, bud and calyxes are already partially assembled. The pattern called for a fluted beads at the bases of the calyxes, but I could't find any, so I used a fluted beads cap instead. They have nice wide holes, which makes wrapping them easy.

The stamens are made using two colors of wool and fabric stiffener. They turned out better than I had hoped!


Finally, as I wrapped multiple stems together, I included a pin back so that the rose can be used as a corsage. I think that the final product turned out great, especially since this was my first big stumpwork project, first time working with wool, and first larger long and short stitch project as well. A lot of firsts, but I am so pleased with the end product!