Looking at them now, I suppose they are not bad for a first attempt at diagonal foundation but there is a lot wrong with them. The stitches are uneven; sometimes too close together, sometimes too spaced out. Some of the stitches are not parallel so the angle of the stitches change. But the worst thing, I think, are the one point open spaces; sometimes the space is none existent and other spaces are far too wide.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
I next stitched a chrysanthemum on Venerable Friends at phase III. I am pleased to see some improvement in every aspect; the stitches are more evenly spaced, the edges of the petals are neater, and the one point open spaces are much better. The central petals on this chrysanthemum are padded.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
I haven’t stitched a chrysanthemum since phase III and I still find short diagonal foundation stitches difficult. The pointed petal chrysanthemums on Sake Boxes are different from both those I have stitched previously. They are most like those on Hanayama but on Sake Boxes the petals are layered more realistically. As on Venerable Friends, some of the petals are padded.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
Because the top petals are not adjacent to each other I could pad them all before I stitched them. They have a single layer of padding using four strands of cotton. The padding stitches are laid in the opposite direction to eventually top layer of silk.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
The second layer of petals has less padding and can only be padded, then stitched once the petals in front of them have been stitched.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
The third layer of petals have a layer of self-padding.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
The remaining petals have no padding.
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
Well, I do think my stitching on this chrysanthemum is better than on those on Hanayama. I would be very disappointed if I saw no improvement in nine years of learning Japanese embroidery. However, I think there is still room for a lot of improvement. I have eleven more pointed petal chrysanthemums, plus some buds, to practise on!
© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway
Happy Stitching
2 comments:
It's certainly encouraging to see the progress you've made - and just think how much more you'll make with all those extra petals!
The sake boxe chrysanthemums are certainly tricky with all those background petals. Looks like you're making good progress.
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