Picking Back Up on the Jacobean Piece

Since I finally finished my Japanese embroidery piece, I decided it was time to get back to my Jacobean piece. I haven't done much on it in weeks. Here's the only thing I did between my last post and yesterday:

Yep, just that little stem branching off to the left of the main stem. I stitched the lower part in two rows of chain stitch (with a few extra stitches at the base to widen it) and then whipped the outer edges in a lighter color. I maybe should have reversed the colors and done the darker color on the outside edge. I may take that part out and redo it. But I'm undecided at the moment. And really, I hate to take out every stitch I put in when I'm putting in so few. 😂

I stitched the upper part of the branch in whipped stem stitch, and I was pretty happy with how that turned out. But that was all I had done in nearly three weeks.

Finally, yesterday, I had some time, so I spent a few hours on it and made a bit more progress. I started by going back to the lowest element on the right:

I did those three circles in a woven wheel stitch using a yellow variegated thread. The first one didn't turn out great, so I took it out and redid it. It looks much better now. I may have tried to squeeze in too many rows around each circle because it kind of puffed them up, but I decided I really liked the three-dimensional quality, so I'm going to keep them like this. This was the third color from my palette, and I love the contrast it provides.

Next, I moved on to the element just above these little flowers and started by using a very muted aqua to satin stitch the center of the leaf:

I stitched it halfway, got fed up with my sloppy edges, ripped the whole thing out (delicately, with dainty, sharp scissors and needlepoint tweezers), and then did it again. This time, I used my tekobari (from my JE work) to stroke the threads and get them to lie flat. It worked beautifully and allowed me to use two strands instead of one but still get a pretty smooth satin stitch. I also made sure to place my needle very carefully to get a smoother edge. I'm pretty happy with it. It's not perfect, but it's as perfect as I could get it and looks rather nice, imho.

Next, I decided to do the part below the satin stitch with another woven wheel, but this time done in a straight line. I saw Mary Corbett do that on her Jacobean piece, and it looked amazing. I've never done it before, but I really wanted to give it at try. I started by stitching the spokes all along the curve in a new color:

I had decided on Friday to add another color to my palette for this piece. I loved the original colors (varying shades of aqua, periwinkle, and yellow), but it needed one more color — something a little warmer — so I went with a lovely peach tone. For this element, I used another DMC variegated thread that went from yellow to peach, thus incorporating two of my colors. With the spokes done, I started the process of whipping them from one end to the other:

On the second row, I continued past the straight woven wheel and stem stitched that little curlicue at the end. Then I went back and finished stitching through the spokes:

Here's how it looked once that part was finished. Not too bad, though a little uneven along the lower edge. But I pressed on and stem-stitched the top line of this leaf in the same variegated thread:

I thought it was really coming together at this point. I still wished the bottom edge was a little neater, but that part took a considerable amount of time, and I had always planned to add French knots along that edge. So I decided to do that and see if the unevenness was as noticeable once the French knots were in place:

There it is with the French knots. It's still a trifle uneven, but it bothers me less now. The French knots give it kind of a lacy edge. So I'm going to leave it for the moment. If it still bothers me when I'm close to finishing the piece, I'll probably redo it at that point. But I'm reasonably happy with it for now.

Here's the whole piece so far:

There's still a lot left to do, but it's coming along and now has some variation of all four colors in it (to recap: aqua, yellow, periwinkle, and peach). I need to figure out what to do with that flower on the left between the two stems. I think I want it to be peach, but I still can't decide on a stitch. Hit me up with any suggestions!

Meanwhile, I took my JE piece into Michael's yesterday to get it framed. They were having a 70% off sale, so it seemed like a good time. I should have it back in about two weeks, which is exciting.

And next weekend, I'm supposed to have my first real JE lesson with a teacher, who will teach me to frame up the right way and to twist my own thread. So lots to look forward to!