Thursday 13 September 2007

A Well-rounded Head

I have been getting up an hour earlier than usual so that I can do a little stitching before I leave for work but somehow that never translates into an hour of stitching and a little stitching is all that I have done!

Fleegle drew my attention to the shape of the head, and quite rightly pointed out that it was not well rounded. I removed the stitching and had another go. The metallic that I am using has a narrow strip of real gold wrapped around a silk core. In removing the stitching the gold striped from the core and was unusable. The real gold is much nicer to stitch with than the imitation gold, but I am finding it more delicate. I have striped two strands so far and only managed to successfully stitch with one! I have stitched and reverse stitched so many times that I am no further forward than I was 3 days ago, except that I now have a well-rounded head (well not me, but the butterfly). I am having problems making the body part well rounded. One stitch forward, two stitches back.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

3 comments:

Jane said...

Hi Carol, don't know what needle size you are using for the gold, but have you tried using one of the hand made number 10s? That might help cut down on the shredding.
So impressed with these, wish I'd been stitching like this when I was on my earlier phases.
jane

fleegle said...

Much better!
If the gold is shredding, you need to use a larger needle.

coral-seas said...

Jane and Fleegle, thank you both for your advise on needles, I really appreciate your advice and suggestions.

In both cases, I think the shredding occurred because I stabbed the thread, first time with my needle while doing the starting pinhead stitch. The second time, I stabbed it with the tekobari while reverse stitching, plus I got a little impatient and tugged too hard. This is always a good sign that it is time for me to take a break, eat some lunch and rebalance myself.