a dragon, stitched
finding some fine wool yarns in my stash gave me the potential to stray from the original design of Wilhemina - i had a selection of variagated Madeira Lana reels, they are even finer than the yarn provided so proved perfect for adding some detail
Tanya's example
mine
using colours which contrasted less with the background stitching gave subtler details, and i added a very fine gold thread to the orange "scales" to give a tiny hint of glitter
the flower was more of a challenge - i was not entirely happy with the original, it seems to big and i felt it stood out too much - as the design was permanent i could not reduce the size unless i covered the background in stitch (not my idea of fun!), so opted to make a feature of it by extending the floral design
so, for now, she is finished - i might add some framing scroll and leaf designs, but don't want to swamp her
as always the main challenge for me has been achieving regularity of stitch - accuracy is easier with the fabric under tension, but my diminishing visual accuity is a slight problem
stitching with wool on wool has been a pleasure i had not expected - it has proved to be very agreeable as the wool yarn is, in some ways, more forgiving than stranded cotton or silk
it seems that my choice of very fine linen as backing cloth was lucky - asking Tanya about this i learned that cotton or calico could have led to much more wear and tear on the yarn, which i found less prone to shredding than anticipated - for me backing the wool was the right decision on this occasion but i will give it careful consideration in future
Comments