Arch for Arlee

Over the last couple of days whilst home sick I have had moments when the drugs have taken effect and I have been able to think. These moments have been few and far between but I have managed to make the first Arch for the Textile Challenges Yahoo group exchange. My January arch is for Arlee. In her notes she said she likes Baroque in hot colours. So I thought I'd take a design from a Baroque picture frame, in red and gold (could not find any copper!). For once I have made some sketches - the right hand page below has lots of try outs on tracing paper. This making of sketches is really rare for me - I usually have the idea in my head and go straight into making it but I have decided I need to slow down and come up with more ideas first. I did however, decide on a rather simple design but I hope it is effective enough for Arlee.

I used a shot silk - red and black over stitched it with red and gold thread in a sort of granite stitch (my machine did not like circles so they came out more like triangles) this has actually taken the most time as I have only stitched a few minutes each day. Then on top of that I placed some gold twinkle organza and carefully stitched my design through tissue - then very slow free hand machine zigzag to emphasise the lines.

Carefully cut away the excess twinkle organza - hand stitched some beads to the points of the curls and edged the whole piece with zig zag stitch. There - finished.....

The curls on the piece really shows if you hold it at an angle as below.

I hope to post it on Friday if I am feeling better and am able to get out and about. Ready to think more about the TIF challenge - not much left of January and I have college before the end too so I have homework to catch up on.