Golden Accessories – Pansy

A whole reel of silk lying on top of the half-stitched background of the pansy

The Pansy continued apace, with only one alarming period when I thought the small amount on the card was all I had left to finish the dark green.

Then I found an entire full reel, gleaming at me from the bottom of the project box.

I was greatly relieved, to say the least!

Next, however, on to the gold and silver.

Pansy in tent stitch with gold and silver strapwork on a dark green ground.

Some of this echoes the other two, and was fairly easy to put in place – reverse chain stitch in the narrow sections. I learnt from last time, however, and this time I put the silver strapwork panels in before the gold, which was again Ceylon Stitch.

The silver was reverse chain stitch with buttonhole edging – so it’s the stitch I used for the titles on the Map of Amarna and the View of the Excavation. Nicely familiar, and very satisfying – but also very much easier without the Ceylon Stitch in place. Next time I will try to think through the order of my stitching!

Comparing sizes - the pansy is bigger than the acorn piece!

However….

It turns out that when I fished out a piece of linen to do the last of these pieces, I didn’t check it very well. The stitches are markedly bigger, and more spread out.

Next time, Rachel, take the time to count the threads!

5 Comments

  1. Sue Jones says:

    Hmm, never thought of doing buttonhole on the edge of chain for a metal thread border. One to file away for future use…

  2. You are so brave, working complex stitches in metal thread. I’d have chickened out and done something simple…
    Checking stitch order and thread count are part of the planning process. I am often so impatient to start that I skip or quickly skim over checking carefully – and have to pay the price later.

  3. Lin says:

    Ooops! Still looks lovely though. x

  4. Alex Hall says:

    That’s certainly an improved version of thread chicken – what a relief it must have been to see the fresh reel!

  5. Carolyn Foley says:

    As I love doing counted thread work counting mistakes drive me mad.