Stitching with Karen

A special thanks to all of you sending me birthday wishes.

I'm finishing this week off with a special post.

In November I had the pleasure of spending over a week with Karen Fraser (no blog), an extremely gifted teacher.  Karen specializes in silk ribbon embroidery but she does ALL types of embroidery.  We spent nine days stitching this panel, YES NINE!!!  The panel is a piece designed by Di Van Niekerk in South Africa.  Stitching is silk ribbon work, stumpwork and a bit of Brazilian.

I came home with the majority of the piece complete with the exception of the darker purple pansy and the panel divisions stitched, both of which I just completed in late December.  

I found this a very challenging piece but am delighted with the results. 

I learned so much. 

 I knew how much I liked silk ribbon work so expect to see more in the future.  Didn't enjoy working with organza ribbon, quite tricky.  I didn't enjoy stumpwork (pansies, butterfly, dragonfly) as much as I thought I would but I'll definitely be attempting some more on a larger scale - I think the problem was more that they were so tiny (Karen helped A LOT).  Really enjoyed thread painting (some of the leaves), Loved the cast on stitch so will be playing with this more.  Perfected French knots (hydrangeas).  Last but not least, LOVED bullions and this piece has several done in different ways.  I will be playing A LOT with these soon.... 

I like to refer to this piece as Karen's and my panel as I could not (nor would I attempt) to have done it without her.  I've stretched it on a frame and it now hangs in my studio for inspiration.

Thank you Karen (and Lee) for sharing your generosity, talent and home with me.  I sure did have fun....