25 September 2014

The Mellerstain Firescreen

When we first saw our current cottage 3 1/2 years ago, I was thrilled that it had a real fire in the living room. I had seen photos of the Mellerstain Firescreen in various magazines and knew that I wanted to stitch it for our cottage. I ordered the kit and when it arrived I panicked at the size and scale of the embroidery! I only knew how to stitch a few basic stitches at that point.
Fast forward 3 years, one 2 day RSN course, and several terms of the wonderful embroidery course taught by Sophie and I feel ready to tackle this monster! I was really pleased with my Robin crewelwork piece and feel confident that I can stitch this one!

Sophie has assured me that I am more than ready, and kindly said that my silk shading was neater than the sample piece :) There is nothing like a confidence boost from a respected teacher to get you motivated, so yesterday I took the plunge
These are the oak leaves in the top left corner, a mixture of padded satin stitch, french knots and silk shading; as you can see I have a long way to go!

 No time for stitching today as I am busy getting ready for the masterclass with Susan Smith tomorrow, I have way too much fabric etc packed as I don't really know what we will need. I am really looking forward to it.

8 comments:

  1. The trick is not to look too hard at the scale of the piece, just at the next leaf, bud, scroll..

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  2. the screen is really pretty - you can do it!

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  3. Oh wow, what an amazing project! I'm going to enjoy following your progress on this one. So lovely to see your robin again.

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  4. Gorgeous progress already on your new wip! Wow! Love it! Have fun in class. love Annette

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  5. I have this kit! Well, it's almost this kit, but I think it might be a cushion as I'm sure it doesn't have the animals on it, just the parrots and foliage... why am I not sure? I haven't looked at it in 2 years! I was stitching it as a pattern test for the designer, she'd send me the first set of stitching instructions, but then she stopped sending them to me. I emailed her repeatedly and heard nothing so the project went on the backburner... and got forgotten! I will look forward to you stitching yours and maybe you can share some tips with me if I pick it back up again as I don't have a stitch guide, just fabric and thread.

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  6. This is going to be beautiful. Fantastic start.

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  7. Oh how beautiful! I am looking forward to your progress on this!

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  8. I'm looking forward to watching your progress on this one. What a beautiful screen this will be! Hope to see a post about your masterclass too!

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