As mentioned earlier this week, I’ll be updating the Medallion Embroidery Project in larger chunks now, showing you progress on whole parts, rather than individual tiny elements. Why? Because from here on out, it gets a little repetitive! Don’t worry – I’ll still include close ups and those inevitable Instructional Moments (i.e. especially when I make mistakes, change my mind, run into trouble, and so forth!).
Today, I want to show you the edge of the Medallion all stitched in, so you can get a general idea of the whole look of the piece now.
Remember that the outer edge is embroidered in stem stitch filling, which is essentially just rows of stem stitch worked close together. I used three colors of blue, from darkest, to dark, to medium for the filling. You can see the finished gold dots on the edge – they don’t stand out quite as much as the white, empty dots, do they? But on the other hand, they stand out more, because they are dark and filled. Don’t worry – that will all come together when the rest of the filling is finished. There’s a lot of gold that still needs to be added to this!
I’ve taken these photos from the side, with bright light on the project, so that you can see that the background behind the monogram can look actually very light, depending on the angle from which it is viewed and the lighting. If the lighting is dim and indirect, it tends to pick up the gold, making the background look like a fairly solid gold background. If the light is bright and direct, then it reflects off the silk behind the gold, and the background looks much lighter.
See what I mean? It’s hard to believe what a difference the direction of the lighting and the intensity of the lighting can make on the look of the background!
Perhaps seeing the piece on the frame like this also gives you a better sense of its size. The whole finished circle is 9″ in diameter. So you see that the project isn’t really “large” – but when it comes to this type of stitching, it sure seems large!
And right now, the whole project is looking all blue-gold-white, isn’t it? Don’t forget that the Tudor-style roses will be embroidered in red silk! And some of the goldwork around the inner petal shape behind the monogram will be touched with red as well.
Yesterday, I ran into a wall while stitching, and it brought everything to a grinding halt. I’ll show you the problem, as well as my solution… when I finally find the solution. I had to step away from the project a bit, waiting for inspiration to strike. At the moment, the Muses are mute. But more on that later!
We’re floating around 260 hours right now. I estimate another 100-ish. We’ll see!
Any questions, comments, or suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment below!
If you’d like to read the back story on this project and follow along with it step by step, you are welcome to check out all the articles related to the Medallion project, which are listed in this Medallion Project Index.
Have a terrific weekend!
