Illuminated Floral Stumpwork Panel – 10

I’ve been leaving the pansy stumpwork petals till I’ve stitched almost everything else on my panel – partly because that’s the order they are listed on the instructions, but also because they looked the most complicated to make, as they have shading on them. The instructions by Alison Cole said to work the petals using long and short buttonhole stitch around the edge (thereby covering the edges and filling in the petals in one go, as I did for the strawberry flower). However, I decided that buttonholing the wire first, then working satin stitch for the background shade, and then doing straight stitch highlights would work better, and I was pleased with how these came out.

The stitched petals for one pansy flower, ready to be cut from the hoop

The upper petals had lilac backgrounds with Madeira #3 highlights, and the lower petals had lemon backgrounds with lilac highlights. I loved using these colours!

This was how much I’d done *before* attaching the pansy petals and leaves – quite a lot is already finished, so I’m getting to my ‘impatient to be done with it’ stage!

Only the two pansy flowers need to be attached now, and then sequins sewn all over the background fabric

All five petals needed to be attached by sinking the wires down the same hole, which was easier than I’d been anticipating. Then I worked a small gold coil loop in the centre. Here’s one of the finished pansies, after I’d attached it:

A completed stumpwork pansy, about an inch across

As you can see, I couldn’t resist adding a few sequins ‘just to see how they look’! More about that next week!

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