After attaching the pansies last time, I was getting impatient to finish this project. I have to be careful I don’t spoil things with my impatience, at this stage!
The sequins needed to be applied last – tiny purply blue sequins with purple metal wire coil chips all over the painted gold areas, and gold 2mm sequins with gold chips all over the black satin areas. That only took about an hour, so now THE STITCHING IS FINISHED!!!
I was most pleased with the strawberry flower, out of all the flowers in this project. I love stitching strawberries and their flowers anyway, but I’d never done a stumpwork one with detached petals before, and this one was tiny – just three quarters of an inch across altogether. The three gold loops in the centre are what makes it so lovely, I think.
The starflowers came out OK in the end – very pretty, but not very ‘star-like’, as I found it too difficult to crimp the ends of each petal’s wire to a point with my tweezers.
The blackberries are so realistic, I just love these!
I’ve mounted the finished stitching in a black satin five inch square box, and it just fits nicely in the lid. I added an extra layer of wadding under the fabric, as I felt that all the wires and gold thread ends on the back might make the surface look puckered, otherwise. I haven’t decided yet what to do with the box, but then embroiderers don’t usually think rationally like that 🙂
For those of you interested in how long this took, I did count the length of my stitching sessions, and they totalled 45 hours for the stitching, plus an hour to mount it in the box.
As I’ve mentioned in each of this series of posts, this design is available as a kit pack from Alison Cole, in Australia. I’d not done any of her kits before, and I really enjoyed doing this one. She has a large range on her website, so it’s well worth a look. I’m quite tempted to try one or two of her other designs, now…. 🙂
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Janet Granger's Blog 
Love this project and might order it in the future. I have been following it for future reference. Could you let me know where you got the box?
You can buy them through vikingloom.co.uk , who have a shop in York. You might have to ring them to check stock, as their website isn’t always up to date.
Many thanks. You have done an excellent job. I will certainly read your descriptions of the project when I do mine. Beautiful.
Stunning! Well done on completing this as it is a complex piece. I am working on Window of the Red Poppies by Alison at the moment and loving doing it.
Ooh, the Red Poppies are on my wish list!
Gorgeous Janet! And it really stands out against the black background.
Thank you! Yes, the black background does set it off, but that did mean that transferring the design was a bit of a pain – if you go back to one of the first posts about this project, you’ll see that I used the tissue paper method, which looked a bit chaotic at the time, but it’s a technique that really works.
Well done, what a great finish! It’s the first time I’ve seen someone glog one of Alison Cole’s pieces.=)
Janet your stumpwork is stunning, 45 hours seems a very short time for the stitching- there is so much involved.
What an absolutely gorgeous piece. Those blackberries do look edible! Beautiful stitching, and I love that you mounted it on a box. Trying to decide which element is my favorite, and I can’t pick. They’re all lovely.
Beautifiul!
Absolutely beautiful Janet, as usual. My question was going to be where to obtain the box but you have already replied. I’m looking forward to tackling this one or the poppies and in the meantime thank you for your inspiration and information. Pat Hepplewhite
Congratulations on a beautiful project Janet! Keep it out somewhere where your visitors can ooh and aah over it 🙂
The finished box looks beautiful, Janet. I have Alison Cole’s books and have done some work from them, finding the instructions excellent. She has some wonderful ideas.
Janet it’s really a wonderful design. Gold painted area is giving a unique look to this project & different color combination is making it more beautiful.