So, finally - I finished doing all the outlining, borders on Baroque. And, having punished myself by forcing myself to only stitch all that (as opposed to something either less stressful or more fun) got on a roll and kept on working. So, I'm having a mini-happy dance for finishing all the borders. And then, I finished the center motif, and the surrounding one.
I'm posting pics on RCTNP - in a few minutes. The center motif is a medallion bordered by perle 5 smyrnas, with the top stitch done in 2 plies of silk. The star is 3 layers - the outer (bottom) & top are in Gold Rush
14, the middle (really purple w/ other colors) is Frosty Rays. The surrounding area is done in a circle of double Amadeus stitches, then a double fan, and so on - 3 plies of silk. It was interesting to do. I actually used quite long lengths of the metallics in the star - since they don't go thru the canvas too much - and it was better than starting, stopping. The Thread Heaven helped - along with keeping good tension. The Amadeus/Fan stitches - took diligence. For my personal pickiness, and since this is a teaching piece - so I've been doing pics of the back as well as the stages of the front (so I can show to the students. But, the picky thing - yes, used a laying tool for all the stitching done with the silk. The desginer suggested 48" lengths - but in order to do one full set (the double Amadeus - the motifs on the corners, and a full fan - the center stitches) it actually took about 54". Don't want to talk about the several times I had to move a stitch on the Amadeus - you do one side, then the other - and it's really hard to get the precisely correct place for the first several stitches on the 2nd side. This is definitely a "feel for it, count the thread bumps as you go" piece.Anyhow - I'm so pleased to be in the fun part - so to speak. And I'll have the pics up soon.
Ellice in cold, damp, No VA