All at once I saw a crowd...
Just a quickie, since it's late and I want to get to bed...
I finished outlining the third sleeve piece, and I'm taking a side trip (as it were) to develop a couple more filled motifs, starting with the daffodil next to the pomegranate. I'm also going to experiment with a couple of the smaller surrounding leaves and berries before getting back to the outlining.
Pictures - you're only reading this for the pictures, right?
I started the fill, only to realize that I hated the fill stitch I was using, so I spent a couple of hours fixing that - it's very important to pick a fill I like and can do fairly easily, since I'll be doing a lot of each fill. After a bit of experimentation, I decided on a fill with crosses:
(That's the pomegranate you can see to the right.)
This stitch actually worked out well - it's light, but not too light, so the gold will pop nicely, and I liked sewing it. I'm having some adjustment problems with the scroll frame and stand, but they'll work out - I'm thinking of getting a floor stand, anyway (its not like I won't use it again and again and again...). This took about six hours.
Then, I started on the darker fill for the under side of the petals - I wanted to choose a complementary stitch, so I went with a denser cross design. It looks like daisies or crosses depending on how you look at it - it's sort of like a Magic Eye daffodil:
This part took about four hours (I finished it about twenty minutes ago). I think it worked out rather well - the contrast isn't as high as on the pomegranate, but I like it. The center ribs of the petals will be filled with the Tambour gilt (I haven't decided what stitch yet - I need to experiment a bit), and the inside of the trumpet will be GST. The outside "berries" will be the passing gilt.
It's looking nice so far.
Oh, and I and my old jacket got blogged about on the Thistle Threads blog, and Tricia mentioned my new jacket, so... yay!
And I'm punchy and tired, so I'm off to bed.