I’ve been talking to the very kind folks on Stitchin’ Fingers, and once more I owe thanks to

Romilly

Carol-Anne

Grace Lister, and

Carmen.

They have been talking about the difficulty of continuing with the other embroidery around the dusty rose once it’s raised petals have been put in. My thread will keep catching on the petals, and drive me crazy (and possible degrade the thread as well?)

So I have developed a plan.

This is where I explain why I never talk about my personal life in my blog (ah, revelation of the mysterious Elmsley Rose!).

I have a neurological disease with neuropathic pain (nerve pain) which keeps me 90% housebound and from doing any housework except the lightest things.

It explains why I’ll do heaps of embroidery, and then suddenly there will be nothing for days or weeks – because I’m going through a bad period.

Now, I happen to know that I have a bad period coming up. I’m moving house at Christmas. I won’t be able to do any embroidery for maybe months.

Then I’ll slowly get better, and be able to do ‘easy’ embroidery. Then I’ll be back to my normal self.

So – I thought I’d do one set of petals of the dusty rose on the separate frame now, so I learn how to cope with a cordonette now, and then leave the rest as “easy” work for when I’m recovering some time after Christmas.

For now, I need to do all of the embroidery that the petals could possibly catch my thread.

Here’s that end of the sampler :

There’s

• the leaves outside the rose
• the strawberries
• the scrolling vine

I don’t currently know how I’ll do the leaves. I’m thinking of the leaves shown in A-Z of Goldwork (the simply *wonderful* new book I have, recently reviewed by Mary Corbet) or maybe some other method. I have decided embroidery methods for most motifs on my design, but not these.

I have heaps of ways to do leaves – I just have to decide.

The strawberries will be done in a plethora of different methods. There are the strawberry blossoms as well.

The scrolling vine – at the moment I’m thinking to do it in Ceylon Stitch. (And leave a special part of it for the Plaited Braid Stitch). I need to learn the stitch, and experiment with doing it at the width of the scrolling vine I’ve drawn in.

There’s also the second bud of “A Rose and Two Buds”. I’ve been experimenting with “Detached Buttonhole with Metal Thread Return” (you can see it in the photo) both on my doodle cloth and on the sampler. I’m not quite happy with the sampler version. The Return is done in Passing Thread, which has worked well. I’m just not sure whether the buttonholing is tight enough.

I’ll be talking about all of these things in greater detail – let’s see how far I get before Christmas. After Christmas, I’ll change to the ‘easy work’ for awhile and then finish the more difficult work listed just above, and finally, attach the rose petals, completing that corner of the sampler.

The flower vertically down from the rose is intended to be done in split stitch – I also intend that as ‘easy work’.

A large part of why I want to do a layer of petals (‘easy work’) now is because I’ve not been very well lately – a good time to do something I don’t have to think too much about – which is why I decided upon doing the Dusty Pink rose now in the first place.

Thankyou again to those who provided me with advice – they have saved me a lot of frustration later on. :-)