Hardanger progress and a dilemma
You’re all getting tired of hearing it from me, I’m sure, but can I just say what a joy it is to be able to stitch in hand again?
Over the past week, I finished the planned cutwork areas of my pastel hardanger piece! Don’t think it’s done yet, though, because there are a few small areas that still need to be defined. See the areas marked with an ‘X’ in the picture? I’m still figuring them out.
I originally thought that I might put some surface embroidery there, like bullion knot roses, but I’m reconsidering that plan. Bullion knot roses are dimensional, and since this is a small runner, shouldn’t it be relatively flat?
Then I thought I might put cutwork in those areas to balance the large areas of cutwork near the center of the design. However, there’s one major flaw in the placement of my kloster blocks. Check out the larger picture below.
See the black lines? These show the potential cut lines in that small diamond. The area isn’t symmetric. Generally diamonds like this are designed such that you can have an open area at each corner of the diamond. If you look at the two other small diamonds bordering this, you’ll see the same problem. This layout is awkward when it comes to determining a fill for cutwork.
I think I’m going to take out the kloster blocks marked with the red lines and use the entire area for cutwork. There will still be a couple of points of this area that can’t be cut, but that should be less awkward with the larger area. I’ve got to make a few sketches and see how it would work.
What do you think?
5 comments:
I think your suggestion of taking out the marked klosters and using the entire area for needleweaving will work well. Your piece is looking really good!
Definitely if it is a small runner you need to avoid anything too dimensional. I've seen vases and glasses near to falling over sometimes!
Jeanne, This piece is lovely. I agree that using the areas on the end for cut work would balance the piece. I am not sure about the four small areas that surround the central motif. Perhaps small rose done in cross stitch might work. I agree that what ever you do it has to be on the flat side since this is a runner. By the way what fibers did you use for the kloster blocks and where did you get? It appears to be a variegated perle. I happen to be looking for variegated perle #8 and #12 and don't know where to look. Thanks.
Congratulations on finishing Plum Blossom. It was well worth the work.
Love the new piece. Very delicate.
Or, you can extend your klosters to fill in instead of ripping and create your own design in those areas.
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