Second Trapunto Jewel

We left the second trapunto Jewel looking like this: crimson gauze over gold tissue, with red wool stuffing the outer, broken channels in the gauze, and something stuffing the central triangle from behind the gold tissue.

And it looks like a good start, doesn’t it?

But some of my more alert readers may be thinking, hang on, didn’t you say something about doing the narrow gold channels first?

Well, yes, I did, but that was when I was filling the channels trapunto-style. I decided to try something else for this next one. I used a gold metallic chainette yarn – the same for all of the gold stitching – and after some thought, picked interlaced Cretan Stitch, to create some of the effect of punched or engraved gold surrounding the gemstones. At this point you can see I’ve only done the first part of the outer line.

I had to invent something for the short sections joining the outer and inner triangles!

Finally, I decided that the edge needed a bit of help and ran a line of chain stitch around the outside.

In terms of the effect, I think this is a great success. However, I’m not sure this is the right scale for Aethelflaed (in terms of size it’s an appreciable fraction of her finished size) and the gold chainette was a bit of a pest to work with. I was stitching in public, so no swearing.

There was, however, muttering…..!