Phase 4: Trefoil Elements

I have been stitching, I swear. But at the beginning of January, I was promoted to a management position at work (largely against my will), and I just haven't had time to blog until now. Work really cuts into my life sometimes. 😂

Anyway, I finally finished the trefoil elements above the center petals, so today you get to see those. I started by padding the central foreground petal of one of the trefoil flowers with a single strand of light wheat colored silk:

After doing a layer of horizontal ladder stitch padding, I did a layer of vertical ladder stitch padding over that:

I only did two layers of padding on these flowers because they're tiny — like half the size of my pinky nail. I didn't think they should be as full as the larger central petals below, which, as you may recall, have three layers of padding.

Once the padding was complete, I parked my silk in the next petal to the right, but I needed to finish my central petal completely before doing the padding for the others (more on that later). So I took a strand of my #1 blonde gold, half-hitched on the needle, and stitched the petal in horizontal layer:

With that done, I added a line of #8 perle cotton padding as a spacer around the central petal. Then I stitched my padding for the other two petals:

You can see from the photo above why I had to wait to do the padding on the side petals. Once the goldwork was done on the central petal and the spacer around it was put in, I could see how much room I actually had to pad in. If I'd done the padding on all three petals first, I almost certainly would have done the padding too large for the space on those side petals. 

I did the same two layers of padding on each of the side petals, starting with a layer horizontal to the petal and then a layer perpendicular to that (vertical to the petal). Then I did the final layer in gold (horizontal layer in respect to the petal):

Because I matched the silk padding to the gold thread, any tiny gaps in the goldwork will be unnoticeable, which is what I wanted. With the goldwork done, it was time to remove the spacer. Incidentally, I used blue silk thread to couch the perle cotton spacer down because it made it easier to see it when it was time to take it out. I learned this trick from a fellow Japanese embroiderer. You can see the nice even space between the three petals:

The final step was to add the border. You can use a pair of #3 or #4 metal threads for this, But I felt I had enough room for #4, so that's what I used - in silver this time for a lovely little contrast:

I started at the base of the central petal and went around clockwise, taking only a single thread down into the gap between each petal. You can see I did it more successfully on the right side, the second time, than on the left. But I think it's still pretty.

Next up was to do the second trefoil the same way:

And then the last two as well:

I think they look very nice on the whole. And it feels good to have another element completed. Of course, I still have the stems to do, but that's for another day.

If you're wondering about the time investment on these itty bitty flowers, it was about 2-3 hours per trefoil flower. I'd say roughly 10 hours to do all four. I got a little faster by the last couple, but as with all things Japanese embroidery, patience is a must!