Pesky Crewel Pomegranate Finished

In my last post on working the Charleston Small, I had run out of the red Gumnuts Poppies threads in my frustrating efforts to work the pomegranate in coral stitch. I pretty much thought that I would order more when Tristan Brooks came back on line at the end of the month (tomorrow, in fact). But then I remembered that I had a few skeins of Appleton wool and sure enough, had a pretty close match of the right colors.

Then Gail left a comment directing me to Mary Corbet's post on this very same kit. She did the pomegranate in coral stitch, but remarked that she would have like to try stem stitch instead. So I thought to myself, let's try the stem stitch. I'm pleased with it, and also with the lattice. I didn't like the fly stitch recommended in the kit. I used the thread that was supposed to be the lightest pink in the original directions, Gumnuts Poppies 857, to form the lattice. Then I had just enough of the Heathway Pomegranate 5 to couch the lattice, but only in one direction.

I don't like the top leaves at all. I may redo them.

The center looks a little bit caved in, doesn't it? I'm sure that just the way the fabric lay. But I do like the look of the stem stitch, even if the Appleton wool does look a bit fuzzy. So that's the end of my Tristan Brooks kits. Since I have a lot of odd bits of threads left over from the previous kits, I thought I would make another small embroidery and then have a nice grouping of four to frame and hang somewhere in the house.

I found this design in the A to Z of Crewel Embroidery and thought it would be just perfect! Well, parts of it, anyway. So I copied the design, then snipped it apart, and rearranged it to make a much smaller design. 

This is what I came up with. The box around the design measures 3 1/2 inches (9 cm), which is the same size of the designs in the other crewel embroideries.

I then decided I wanted to try the prick and pounce method of transferring the design to the linen. I placed a piece of vellum paper and the decorative spools from Michael's, a discount hobby store in the US, and glued a felt circle to one end to use as the pouncer. That's a #3 embroidery needle stuck in the cork. I used it for a while but then switched to a push pin, which was much easier to control.  By the way, Navarro Winery is our favorite winery, located in Mendocino County way up north in California. We visited them when our children were young, and they welcomed them and let them taste their grape juice in wine glasses, just like an adult. I've always appreciated that so we've been members of their wine club for over a decade. Oh, and the wines are great!

It worked pretty well to transfer the design. I used the charcoal dust left in the bottom of the charcoal bags we use for the barbeque. (Don't use the Match-Light, you don't want the smell of lighter fluid on your embroidery!). However, my hand isn't particularly steady, as you can see on the large leaf on the left. I'll have to use some fancy embroidery to cover that. Still, the technique wasn't as daunting as I had expected, so I will definitely use this again in the future. But I do need to invest in some better brushes, and stretch out the fabric before painting.

This will be something of a doodle piece. I'll just make it up as I go along. I'll use some of the stitches in the original directions, but probably not all. And of course, I'll change the color scheme to use up my little bits of thread left over from the previous projects. It should be fun, and will be something I'm doing that's not completely from a kit, which is quite unusual for me.

Well it's Sunday evening, and time to get ready for the week ahead. I hope all of you can find a few minutes in the day to stitch, as I certainly hope I can.  We did go to the movies this afternoon and saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. All I can say is WOW!