Karahana, stems and trefoils

Lucky me, I was able to stitch Friday evening, all day Saturday and much of Sunday. Better still, on Saturday I was stitching with friends. Sue invited me to join her and Jenny (another member of the Bournemouth Crew) for a days stitching at her home.

Jenny, a very experienced stitcher and accredited teacher of Japanese Embroidery, was adding the final touches to Yushoku Summer, the Phase XI design. After learning all 46 techniques in Phases I-X, students learn about 'sensibility' through Phases XI-XX. Yushoku Summer is stitched on a special fabric called Ro that is woven with a row of holes in the weft valley and is used for summer kimonos. Sue informs me that Jenny completed the stitching on Sunday. Well done, Jenny.

Sue is also close to completing Bouquet from the Heart of Japan, a Phase I design that she is stitching as a practice piece. It is common practice to stitch a practice piece along side or between Phases to consolidate the techniques you are learning.

With so much stitching time I was hopeful that I would finish or at least come close to finishing Karahana but as usual I grossly underestimated how long things would take me.

I did manage to outline the two woven effect leaves with a couched pair of #4 gold threads and to complete the lower part of the stem in the same way.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

After my initial elation at completing the bottom half of the design, something bothered me about the way the leaves joined the stem; it looked clumsy. I examined the photographs supplied with the box chart and those that I took at Bournemouth (there is always a stitched version of the Phase pieces available during the class for students to refer to) and could see how it differed from mine. I am going to rework mine. It won’t take terribly long and I will not be satisfied if I leave it as is.

The trefoils are padded in the same manner as the flower centre but not as fully. I used two layers of padding cotton (four strands) and one layer of silk (four strands on the central part and 2 strands on the outer parts). The stitching is a horizontal foundation in #1 gold. As usual the foreground element is padded and stitched before the elements behind them. In this case the center part is uppermost.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

When all three parts are padded and stitched, the trefoil is outlined with a couched pair of #4 gold.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I probably still have as much stitching remaining as I manged to do this weekend.

Happy Stitching