Yay! I just spent two afternoons working hard, and I’ve finished the embroidery.

Regarding the empty space, I filled it with leaves from both sides.

Thankyou so much for all of the advice :-)

I ended up leaving that long rose leaf, because it was broken up by having some pansy leaves being placed on top of it.

I liked the suggestion of inserting a butterfly (and thanks Yvette for the suggestion of the use of organza for it’s wings), and embroidered one on one side.

It ended up being a bit close to a rosebud – if only I’d put the body 3 or 4 mm further down.

It’s antennae are made of this strange thread I had. The best I can describe it is being coated with iridescent purple foil. I think it’s used in scrapbooking – it was just something I had lying around. If anyone knows what it is called, I’d be interested. It’d be handy to have in some different colours for some odd jobs like this.

The purple iridecence works well to bring out the general purple-ness of the piece.

The antennae aren’t very well coiled because I couldn’t find my tweezers for the life of me, so I could only use my fingernails.

I got the pattern for the butterfly from the a piece at Fan Photos from Di Van Niekirk’s Silk Ribbon Embroidery,

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=133343796726806&set=o.356318074718

Now to take it off the frame and back it…….