Now that all the Christmas festivities are over, and the decorations have come down, I feel ready to get back to my RSN Crewel work piece. I am at that point where there seems to be lots of little fiddly bits to finish off – all of which take a lot longer to complete than I originally thought they would!
After an afternoon of sewing (and listening to drama on Radio 4), I managed to complete the french knots on the cap of the birds head and fill in the trellis work. I also slip stitched around the trellis work in dark brown. I am not too sure about using this colour as it looks dark and ‘clunky’ – unfortunatly there were lots of brown starting stitches that needed to be covered in this area.
I also made a start on the small circles around the outside of the larger flower. I had originally thought of doing these in turkey rug stitch but my tutors advised against this. Next I tried raised satin stitch – but as the circles are so small it became very fiddly. I finally settled on the little whipped wheels in a single colour.
The overall piece now looks like this………..
I still am at a loss as to what stitch to use for the throat of the bird and the tail. Tutors suggested feather stitch for the tail- but I really didn’t like this. I am also a bit worried about the flatness of the birds head – I think it might be time for another session at Hampton Court, but I was hoping that the next time I went in I would be mounting this piece!
Great progress
Thank you – progress, but very slow progress!
This looks gorgeous. I love how the stems wind round the branches… That’s a very cool effect
Thank you.
This is really coming along nicely! I’ve been looking at your bird’s head to try and think of something. Padded satin would help raise it, except the area is too large for satin stitch. Would laid work with trellis in a similar colour help to raise it? Clutching at straws I know! And maybe Vandyke for the tail? Good luck with your decisions!
I had thought of Vandyke stitch for the tail – I wanted some sort of scalloped stitch for the throat though.
Would buttonhole or a variation work?
Might do actually!
So very beautiful – and Is that mistletoe? It’s beyond my knowledge to make any helpful suggestions other than carry on!
It is supposed to be a mistle thrush on mistletoe – but then it was pimped up a little by the tutors at the RSN!
It’s lovely whatever it is – I’m no good with birds but I recognised the mistletoe 🙂
Beautiful work – I can’t give you any advice, I can only admire and envy 😉
Thank you very much.