Easter being right around the corner, and days flying by as they always do, I’ve fallen behind a bit on my egg embroidery!
Do you ever have those grand visions of preparing hand-made gifts for a whole list of people, only to find that you have run out of time? Well, that’s the case here.
I wanted to finish five more eggs before Easter, but I have judiciously narrowed that down to two possible finishes. The others will have to wait!
This egg is one that I just had to get to. I’m inexplicably drawn towards swirls, and I really like how they look on the eggs. They can be subtle and delicate – or they can be bold and bright, depending on the threads chosen.
This particular egg is a blue Rouen duck egg – the softest, palest blue. And on it, I’m using a white-silver metallic thread (DMC Light Effects), to keep the effect somewhat subtle.
Then, I plan to plant pearls on the surface – at the tips of all the swirls, and at the junction of most of them.
The pearl beads in the photo above are a little large (3mm). Finding 2mm pearl beads locally might be a bit challenging, but I’m going to try!
I find swirl stitching on the eggs very relaxing. I love the movement of the swirls, and they way they swoop about, intertwine, and cover the whole surface.
And I love, love, love the feel of duck eggs. They are strong eggs, and they feel like porcelain. I wish I had a whole flock of them! Alas, this is the last one.
And the other egg on the finish line before Easter is the basket egg we touched on when discussing raised and woven stitches in egg embroidery. This fellow is kind of tough. I lost the sketch of the original design layout, so figuring out what all those holes mean is somewhat of a challenge. But, eventually I’ll get there!
As the final touch on this egg, imagine a ribbon woven up through the basket handles on each side and tied in a bow on top. Can’t wait to get to that part!
Probably my favorite aspect of this egg is the fact that it stands up by itself, because of the “basket” embroidery around the base. Not that I’ll necessarily leave it standing up alone in the middle of the table, but I think it’s kind of neat that it is self-supporting.
So those are my two definite finishes by the end of this week. Here’s hopin’! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
If you’re interested in embroidery on egg shells and you’d like to try it out, feel free to check out the Embroidery on Eggs Index, where you can find a list of articles on the subject, with tips and techniques for taking up egg embroidery.
