Progress on the Bits of Bullion Bubble

It's been three weeks since I last posted on this, and I've barely touched it since then. Over the last two days I've spent a fair amount of time gardening, cooking and cleaning up in preparation for the Memorial Day barbecue we are hosting tomorrow. Yes, I know Memorial Day is Monday, but my family likes to not have to drive home and get up to go to work the next morning. So we are having our get together tomorrow. Above is the bodice, only one more bullion to make in the lower right hand corner. All of the photos are lightened up quite a bit, so the mint green fabric tends to wash out a bit.

First of all, the easiest. These cherries are simple yet very cute. The are also pretty easy, as the stems are only 10 wraps and the cherries 12.

This was also fairly easy as the largest of the petals was 25 wraps, not too bad. The leaves were a bit tricky as they tended to twist after making them so I had to couch them in place with a single strand of thread. The daisies, cherries, cherry stems and leaves were all made with two strands of floss.

Now this lollipop was a bit more complicated. It required five strands of floss, three periwinkle and two yellow in a No. 3 milliner's needle with 25 wraps.  When working with two different colors it is very important to keep the strands lying beside each other while twisting them around the needle. Actually, this is important with one color as well, but even more so with two colors to give an even stripe to the bullion. You have to keep untwisting the thread as you wind it around the needle. I can see it's a bit uneven, so I may redo this one. I thought that my stick was just perfect, but now I can see the last loop isn't lying quite flat. I patted it a bit with my fingernail and it looks a bit better, but the lollipop portion really does need to be redone.

This little worm is my favorite. It's not quite perfect, but not bad. This took 45 wraps! At least it was just two strands of thread with quite a bit of couching to keep the curve in place.

That's all I can manage today. Sometimes with something that is fairly difficult, as this piece is for me, I need to work it in relatively small sessions, 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a time. There are some really complicated bullions coming up, insects and birds, which will be really challenging!

There will be no time for stitching tomorrow, but I hope to get some done Monday. I hope all of you have a great weekend, and be sure to remember and honor those who died serving our great country.