Peach hearts hardanger cushion complete!

Here it is: the completed peach hearts hardanger scatter cushion cover. =)

I'm really pleased with the finished look of this one.  It was hard to get a good picture, because of the light in our current home.  I find it either too dark or too bright to get a good shot, but trusty Photoshop Elements is at hand to save the day, so you can see it in a respectable amount of light and detail.

I wanted to do a more detailed post on how I put this cover together, but unfortunately forgot all about taking the necessary photos until I'd almost finished.  Sorry!  Next time....

This is the backing fabric I chose - a sort of peachy beige based fat quarter which I bought in Taiwan.  It's been nice to use so many of my oriental fabrics recently, although I confess to having sold the majority of them (and others) last month.  Actually, I've halved my fabric stash - what an enormous relief that was too!  More about that another day though.

I didn't have quite enough of the plain peach fabric you see through the cutwork areas, so I used it where it was needed and put a border of white around it.  The backing is also lined so as to make it a bit less flimsy, especially in comparison to the backed piece of Oslo fabric on the front, which is quite rigid.

The last step was a 10"/25cm white zip.

This was a lovely project to work.  I hadn't done a decent sized piece of hardanger for such a long time and it was a real pleasure to do this one.  I loved using the Anchor peach multi-coloured pearl #5 and also putting one of my old Six Strand Sweets to use.  Later on, when I was sorting out which threads to sell last month, I found that I actually owned the matching Anchor multicolour stranded cotton and could also have used that, but I don't think anything was lost for not having done so.

The cushion/pillow's new owners are very happy with it and recently sent me a photo of it in situ on their sofa, (which you can see on my Instagram - link in the sidebar).

What's next?  The Bingley Show handicrafts tent displays.  Roll up, roll up!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Peach Hardanger Cushion - cutwork and fillings

Hi everyone!  Sorry about the long pause in reporting on this project.  I actually finished it almost two months ago, have since exhibited it in a local agricultural show and handed it over to its new owners last month!  I just hadn't got to blogging about it until today.

Things are nothing if not mad around here these days and I'm finding myself without much chance to post on my blogs.  I can keep up with my Instagram OK, but it's a little harder to find the time etc needed to sit down, edit photos and then create posts - something that almost always takes a lot longer than one would expect.

Anyway, enough of all that.  You want to read about the project, right? =)

When I last wrote about it back in mid-July, I left it at the surface work done and cutting out complete stage.  Next stage was, of course, the filling stitches.  Sadly, I didn't get a lot of WIP photos during this stage, at least not decent, blog-able ones (one or two were OK to use on IG), as I was working on it quite intensively.  There were basically only two types of filling in this design: woven bars with dove's eye filling in the large diamond section and Greek cross fillings in the squares.
  

Here's an angled view where the lovely texture of hardanger shows up well.  I loved using a little bit of colour in this piece as well.  White on white is beautiful and so classic, but a splash of colour is always welcome, I feel.

Next time I'll share the completed scatter cushion with you. Hope you like it so far. =)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

Moving on with the peach hardanger scatter cushion

Back again for the next segment of the work on my most recent hardanger scatter cushion cover.

I've loved working on this one.  It's been really quick to do and the colours - the mixed peach shaded threads - have been delightful.

The angled shot below shows the lovely texture of the pearl cotton threads beautifully, don't you think?

All the threads removed that needed to come out and ready for the next stage - the filling stitches.   Tune in for that part in my next post on this piece.

I've also been working on the patchwork effect baby knit and taking some photos for Friday's 'Where Bloggers Create' post.  Now to edit them....

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016

New hardanger scatter cushion well in progress

Exciting!  I'd been admiring some other embroiderers' hardanger work on Instagram and wanting to be able to do another piece myself for a few weeks and now it's in progress! =)

Here's the floss toss, including a plain peach fabric which will back the actual stitching and peep through the cutwork areas and a patterned piece that will be the cushion backing.

You might remember that I showed this scatter cushion cover last week and said I intended to cut the design down as I found it too busy for my simpler tastes.  Well, here is the section I'm working:

And now photos of my progress so far taken one day apart - and showing how much time I've had for stitchery from Sunday to Tuesday of this week!!!  I was quite amused to see how much positive attention a photo of the tiny central diamond attracted on my Instagram stream, ending up as my most 'liked' photo.  It seemed strange when there was so little to see. =)

I'm now working on the final stages of the surface work - the cable stitch outlining and then some eyelets in the four 'outlying' squares.

What do you think?  Like it?  I'm loving the colours.  I don't think I've ever really done a peach coloured piece before and it makes a lovely change.  Peach was my high school best friend, Wendy's favourite colour.  Coincidentally enough, whilst waiting for my doc's appointment (nothing serious, just a persistent sinus infection), I met up with another old schoolmate who I hadn't seen for 25 years.  An 'old flame' in fact as we were an item for about a week!!!  Fun that we still recognised each other. I've been 18 again in my mind and listening to tapes I made back in sixth form ever since.  Need to wake up now, get on with the housework and be back to the present day...

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2016