Catching up - again

I hadn't realized it's been so long since I posted! Oops.

It's been productive time, though. Among other things, I've started this year's Christmas decorations, which have shisha mirrors as focal points. Here's what I've got so far.



This is the first one that I've "finished." I'm doing all the surface beading and embroidery before they're cut out. I had originally expected to add more to this, but after the border of beads was done, I felt that anything else would've detracted.




This one looks kind of lopsided to me. I used metallic thread in chain stitch to outline the leaves. It was horrible to work with. I'm specifically using materials with a shine to them, but I won't be using metallic like that again. Not worth the fight.






After finishing this one, I could think of a whole bunch of ways I could've done it better. Ah, well. I was coming up with the pattern on the fly and had only a vague idea of what I wanted when I started.




This one is Eldest's favourite. Just rows of chain stitch in rayon floss with a few beads for interest.








There's going to be a total of 12 when I'm done, 6 on this red cloth, six on a creamy coloured cloth (left overs from the girls' cotehardies), in two sizes, and each will be different.

Unfortunately, as I was stitching another that I don't have a photo of yet, the last one's mirror popped out. I was afraid it would - the guide threads ended up being pulled a lot farther to the edges than I was comfortable with. Better that it falls out now than later, though! I had to do a lot of cutting to get the embroidery out.

It's stitched back in now, and there's no way it's going to fall out again! *L* I've found a way to keep the guidelines from moving too far out. Now, I just use 4 stitches to hold the mirror in place, with the threads wrapped around each other at the intersections. I then go back and wrap the thread around each intersection before going back to the edge and taking the thread to the back. The second image above, with the leaves, has a mirror put on in that manner. It makes for a slightly smaller opening for the mirror, and a tendency for the opening to be a bit to one side, but it's much more stable.

So far, I like how they're turning out.


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