Ring Cushion in the hoop (plus the wedding rehearsal!)

Sigh! I'm having a time and a half getting an even partway decent photo of the work done so far on the ring cushion embroidery! All the pictures turn out with fabric looking no lighter than mid-grey instead of bright white. I'm going to have to try to get later shots outside, I think, but it's rather hard where I live to find a suitable place for it. Maybe I could use our car bonnet/hood!!  Anyway, here's the first day's work.  Below is the shot I took just a few minutes ago after four sessions (and after all earlier photos were rejected for execrable quality!)  This one is quite bad enough, but those made it look good....

Some parts I'm happy with, some not so good, but I'm hoping that they'll look much better once things like sepals and stems appear.

Last night was the rehearsal, so I cobbled up a quick dummy cushion so that it could be used.  Here you can see my trialling two of my own rings on the mock up to test the padding.  What I've done is to cut, in effect, three squares of lightweight quilt batting and cut holes in the centre of two of them so that there's a distinct dip where the rings can lay safely.  A few people at the rehearsal actually thought this was the real thing and was really nice!!!=)  I was just thinking the other day how very easy many people are to impress....

Here's the dummy run of the 'rings bit'.  Marion (the bride) kindly agreed to let me trial the real rings to give the padding a thorough test, although this fabric is smoother than the real thing will be with embroidery standing proud and natural slubs in the silk.  As you can see, the best man is bringing the rings over.

The rehearsal was a very international event.  Above you have the bride (French) and groom (Malaysian), with the witnesses - the best man and his (Japanese) wife, as well as Sir (German) by the door checking the list of what happens when.  On the right is the chairman (sitting down) who will be giving the announcements in Chinese as well as English for the groom's family.=)  The second photo is the team discussing arrangements for the post ceremony catering.  Rod, seated on the right, was the perfect choice being unashamed to admit how much he LOVES his food!!=)

The chairman's wife had commented on what nice fabric the mock up cushion was and I said that, yes, if one were to trim it up around the edges, one could make it into something simple, but pretty enough.  So, that got me thinking about making some braids to trim up the edges of the real thing and these are the threads I fished out last night.  Of course, I won't be using them all and the choice of metallic will be influenced by which goes best with the final looks of the design.

The couple's rings are white gold, so silver coloured, so I rejected bright, yellow golds at once and left silver and the two soft golds out to choose from later on.

I also thought a few of these tiny beads would look nice around the finished design to add some sparkle.  They're the iridescent ones on a more or less clear 'base', (as opposed to a white basis) and look rather pretty.

So, still plenty to do, but the stitchery is progressing quite well and ideas are still flowing for making improvements.  More next weekend!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014