New Embroidery Project - Rambling Clematis

I've joined the Centennial Chapter of EGA in Greeley, Colorado, and brought this project to the last meeting. This is called Rambling Clematis, by Alison Cole, who was the traveling teacher for EGA last year, and taught the class at for our Orange County Chapter (California) last November. According to the instructions, the kit is suitable for all skill levels, which I don't believe for a minute. This is somewhat complicated, just look at all the fiddly bits! The project is a combination of silk embroidery, stump work and gold work, with all that entails (stretching pearl purl, couching, etc.)

This is how far I've progressed. Mind you, I haven't touched it since November, what with packing and the holidays. But luckily, this is the one embroidery project I brought with me to Colorado. The big tufted parts are the turkey work centers of the clematis flowers, just not yet trimmed.  The big white spot on the left is paper couched over a dragonfly to protect it.

Every single clematis petal is worked separately, for a total of 24 petals, eight each of small, medium and large. I have all of the smalls marked, six of the medium, and none of the large. It takes a few hours for each petal, so there is quite a lot of work ahead! The threads are Gumnuts hand dyed silks, which have a "built in" shading to them. They are lovely to work with, as are most silk threads. Notice the variation in the colors, that is not silk shading, but the variation in the thread itself. The one completed petal with a it of gold, has a few threads of the darker purple, but really very little.

This is my little gold work box. It's a photo box from Staples (large office supply store in the US), with a ruler downloaded from the internet and a black felt insert.

As you can see, this is a pretty good sized project, which will keep me busy with embroidery for some time to come.

Earlier this week Mary Corbet of Needle 'n Thread posted a video of Ms Cole demonstrating some 17th century embroidery techniques, please watch it, it is fascinating.