Back to Camellias

As soon as I finished Floral Melody, I felt the first pangs of post project blues coming on. I had anticipated this and put Camellias onto the stand to get on with before PPB could take hold. Camellias is one of the projects am aiming to finish but there is more work outstanding than for most of the other projects on the list. Last time I worked on Camellias was in October when I completed the two-tone flower on the right.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Flush with success following Trish Burr’s Chinese Flower on-line class, I approached Camellias with unprecedented confidence ... which dissolved the moment I contemplated tackling LSS on partially stitched white flower on the left.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I am not going to dwell on why I freeze every time I come to do LSS in Japanese embroidery. It is something that I have to overcome. Rather than sit starring desolately at my piece, I decided to start working on some of the leaves.

There are 18 leaves on Camellias, 15 of which are worked in flat silk. There are many things to concentrate on when stitching a flat silk foundation; keeping the stitches evenly spaced and parallel to each other, creating a nicely shaped edge, maintaining a one point open space between motifs and keeping the silk flat and smooth. It had been a couple of months since I had even touched silk and I felt very rusty. At first I focussed hard on keeping the stitches parallel and making the silk as smooth and shiny as I could but the edges of the leaves were not as smooth as they could be.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Then I paid closer attention to the outline but my one point open space was more like a gaping chasm.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Gradually everything that I have learnt came back to me and my anxiety, as well as my stitching, settled down

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching