Stitching And Stitching...

 

And Still More Stitching....

It Turns out, Dear Readers, that stitching is almost the only thing I got done in my Mini Worlds over the past few weeks. I realize now that it is so comforting to have something small to pick up and apply creative energy to between phone calls and doctor appointments. It was way back in April that I had shown you the beginnings of the Hound and his Mate on the fifth cushion in the series. It did not take me long to get all the blossoms stitched around them. I have really enjoyed the wonderful variety of blossom arrangements and different types and colors that are the "Mille Fleures" of these kits. Every one of the backgrounds is different, even though some of the flower types are repeated. Once the blossoms were all stitched it was time to outline them all in the darker red. This takes quite a bit of very careful stitching.

 

 

And once that is finished the bright red background is added.

 I am always surprised at how much difference the bright red makes!

 

 

It really tightens up the pattern and "cheers up" the appearance!

 And while I was still adding the background color,

 I was starting to plan the next stitching options...

Because all that remaining silk mesh was going to need some stitching to fill it!

 

And I had some good options to work with! You can see the beginning of another square cushion design in the upper corner. This is taken from a book I bought many years ago of medieval tapestry stitching projects by Candace Bahouth. Her designs are for RL size projects, but a few would translate really well into mini cushions at this scale of thread count!

 

 

 

This design is for a small bag or purse in RL size.... and it happens to be 60 stitches to a side, exactly the same as the squared cushions! How easy is that? And even though the chart calls for more colors than the Mille Fleures kits came with... I have ordered a few extra colors, hopefully to fill the gaps in the color range. So I started in with the stitching....

 

 

But several of the threads I had ordered were on back order...

 and might take weeks to arrive... so I didn't get very far with the Wyvern. 

But I had started another cushion outline as you can see in the hoop..... 

along the same pattern as all the other cushions 

because I was going to design one of my own! 

And this one would be a replica of a RL cushion I have had for years...

A version of the Unicorn In Captivity

 taken from a Medieval Tapestry in the Cloisters Museum in New York.

 Although the original tapestry has a green verdure background

 rather than the red of the Cluny Tapestries.

 

I had to do the complicated part of trying to get the graph paper chart drawing to fit the printed backgrounds to see how the figure would need to be placed among the blossoms.

But it also needed the complex fencing.... I decided I needed to chart the entire thing myself.

 

 

And part way through the process I realized I had to work within the circle formed by the original kit outline... which I used to help me keep the count of the stitches correct.... so you see here the fence fitted into the circle as best I could.

 

And I started in with the stitching!

 

 

Because I wasn't confident of my design details, Dear Readers,

 I decided to stitch all three of the "basic" unicorn colors simultaneously...

 the lightest one in this case is the body color and the darkest is the dark shadows and the middle is for lighter shadowing in the coat and mane. I needed to be able to see how they looked as I went along in case I wanted to make changes... but it looked pretty good as the chart was drawn.

 So I just kept on going!

 

 

Here the Unicorn is outlined. 

I needed to do this right away so the background elements

 would stay separated from him visually.

 

 

And because I wanted some of the flowers to be

 in front of the fence in the foreground... they had to be stitched first.

 

 

 And bit by bit the fencing is added and the flowers too.

 

 

And I needed to expand the flowers into the corners too...

 

 

Here you can see most of the fencing has been outlined too.

 

 

And the outlining has been completed. 

Now all that is needed is the bright red background color,

 but that will have to wait for another day.

As you can see, Dear Readers,

I have been finding Comfort in stitching

 and stitching, and Still More stitching!