WIPW - A Finish

Work In Progress Wednesday.

The best progress one can make is of course a finish, and today I have such a finish - the birthday present I wrote about last week.

The projects I usually report about, Mandala and Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler, slumbered peacefully while I burned the midnight oil in order to finish the present.

Last week it looked like this:

Now it is in the safe hands of the Japanese Postal Services and will be handed over to the Birthday Girl on Friday. 

I added more of the following stitches between last week and today: Stem, Fly and Pistil Stitch. Also, quite a lot of metallic thread and masses of beads have been used.

After pressing the cotton fabric, I prepared a circular piece of card as well as a circle of purple felt with interfacing. I basted 'drawstring stitches' around the circle,  pulled, 

tightened it around the card and the embroidery, pressed down the folds and stitched down the felted backing.

A string for hanging the ornament was next.

The last job was to make a beaded edge. This was easy thanks to the excellent tutorial by Pamela of Hokkaido Kudasai.

I now have an enormous backlog of chores... Well, I am very pleased with the result and will start on those jobs with a light heart.