“Fig. 92 shows a flower carried out in laid work. The tying-down threads can often be made use of in one way or another to further decorate, or to explain form, by means of contrasting colour, change in direction, and so on.

The laid stitches in this flower are taken from the centre outwards and fixed in place by couched circular lines of thread.

The centre of the flower has a geometrical filling, composed of a couched lattice pattern with French knots between.”

- “Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving”, Mrs A.G. Christie

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20386/20386-h/20386-h.htm

My camera is playing up atm, but here’s the base, laid in split stitches.

Yes, that mis-placement of the main part of the vine joining to the flower is really annoying me, but I can’t fix the pen line.

I’ve started the couching in Jap gold, using oxide red as the couching thread.

At first, I was going to use Double Chain Stitch, suggested in Jane Zimmerman’s book as a filling for petals

for example

Double chainstitch, from “Samplers and Stitches”, also by Mrs Christie. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Double_chain_stitch.gif

I learn it from Mary Corbet’s instructions at

http://www.needlenthread.com/2007/07/embroidery-video-tutorial-double-chain.html

but it occured to me that I had no guidelines to keep my chain stitches in line – not even the canvas itself since I’d laid down a layer of split stitches as a base.

Then I had a go in Ladder Stitch. I thought it’d look nice done in a contrasting colour, with the edges of the Ladder Stitch at the edges of the petals.

But Ladder Stitch just wasn’t happening for me that day. So I ended up doing what Mrs Christie suggested  - circles of laid thread, using the oxide red contrasting couching thread (“tying down stitches”).

I don’t know what I’m going to do in the centre – but it will involve goldwork.