It’s been a little too long since we visited the Mission Rose project. Last time we looked at it, we were discussing the question of whether or not it was a mistake to appliqué blue silk into the corners around the central marquise shape.
Opinions were really divided on the addition of the blue! I’m glad, because that means that you feel comfortable expressing your needlework opinions on Needle ‘n Thread, which contributes to that sense of community that a blog is all about – we can discuss needlework things, and we can even have divergent views on this or that approach, but we still go forward.
In the long run, the whole Final Decision thing still falls back on me. Darn! It’s one of those situations where you can please some of the people most of the time, and most of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time. Right?
But I am going to ask those who don’t really like the blue – those of you who are scratching your heads, raising your eyebrows, and wondering about my state of mental health – one big favor…
Give it time! It might grow on you!
This portion of the design is not completely developed yet, and you’re not seeing the finished result. You may never like the blue, and that’s ok! But try to keep an open mind until it’s completely finished.
That, in fact, is what I’m doing. I’m “waiting to see.” I like the blue ok, but I’m not 100% sold on it. I think it’s going where I want it to go. But it has quite a way to go before it gets there!
So let’s talk a little bit about the technical side of this appliqué stuff.
I’m using a beautiful blue (the pictures don’t do it justice!) silk from Japan that a friend sent to me from his travels abroad. The silk has a wonderful body – it is not limp, but crisp. It’s not thin-thin, but it isn’t thick, either. Just like the itty bitty baby bear’s porridge, it’s Just Right.
Before tracing the shape of the appliqué onto the silk, I ironed a fusible interfacing called Mistyfuse Ultraviolet to the back of the silk. You can find some good information on how to use Mistyfuse on Sue Bleiweiss’s website, here.
Because Mistyfuse is a paperless fusible web-like interfacing, I used parchment (Reynold’s parchment, straight out of my pantry) to cover the Mistyfuse when ironing it onto the fabric. I fused the Mistyfuse to the back of the silk, and then I traced the pattern onto the silk. Then I cut the shapes out, just outside the tracing lines. The interfacing helps keep the silk from fraying and from shifting during the sewing process. Please note that the silk is not fused onto the embroidery ground fabric! It is tacked on with tiny stitches.
To sew the appliqué in place, tack all the corners, stitching from just outside the appliqué (on the ground fabric) to just inside the appliqué, about 1/6th of an inch in. Once the corners are done and holding the piece in place, work these tiny stitches perpendicular to the appliqué edge all around the shape.
By the way, if you think the blue is bad, see that yellow off to the left? That’s going on next!
Concerning the unfinished, raw edge of the appliqué, that will be completely covered. You won’t see the edge or the appliqué stitching once all is finished.
I was told recently that the rose looks like it is worked on burlap and it looks huge, because my pictures are too close up. So the photo above is to give you a sense of the size of the piece. The whole project is not very big! But I think the close-ups are necessary, if you really want to see how the actual stitching is done.
What’s Next?
Next is the preparation for the goldwork! And I will show that to you in a couple days. Once the prep work is done for the goldwork, I think we’ll all have a better idea of how the blue works in the piece.
More coming up! Stay tuned!
As usual, questions, comments suggestions? Have your say below!
If you’d like to follow along with the Mission Rose project from start to finish, you can find all the articles relating to this project listed in chronological order on the Mission Rose Project Index page.
