0 Ring Bearer Cushion/Pillow - completed project and the wedding!

Here's the finished embroidery still in the hoop.

Below is a close up of the lower leaf section, (about the only close up shot that came out well!!!)

The finished item from various angles:

Worked in DMC and Anchor stranded cottons, and Mill Hill petite seed beads.

You may have noticed that the first, in the hoop pictures didn't feature any tiny dewdrop beads.  Well, there's a story behind that!  When the stitchery was finished, I decided that it didn't need any other trims and decided just to make it up without beading etc.  However....

When I was pressing the flatwork from behind, the silk went all puckery and odd.  I knew it was nothing to do with the backing or the iron being too hot, but I didn't know how to solve it.  So, I tried steaming it with the iron.  That's when our delightful and rather ancient steam iron decided to spew out jets of rusty water all over my precious embroidery!  You can imagine the howl of horror I let out!  I'm glad Sir was in the States at an academic conference at the time as I may otherwise have wasted time taking it to show him the disaster.  As it was, I ran straight to the bathroom washbasin to rinse out as many of the marks as I possibly could under the cold tap.  I was more relieved than I can tell you that the vast majority of them came straight out.  Phew!

Next I pressed what I could of the un-embroidered areas with the iron on cool (and steam OFF!) and then put the whole thing back in it's original hoop and set it in front of my study fan heater to dry again.  Not only did it dry nicely, but it also pulled out all those original funny puckers!!  I was left with one or two light brown marks that most people wouldn't have noticed, but that weren't good enough for me.  So, I got out the petite seed beads and put one on top of each tiny mark!  I added a few more in certain unmarked areas to even things up a bit.

I won't try your patience with all the hassles incurred whilst putting it together, I'll only say that I had neither time, desire nor inclination to add the braids I'd made.  It really didn't add anything to the finished product and I was feeling a spot on the stressed side by this time.  Anyway, into a Tesco zip-lock freezer bag and then into a gift box it went, ready to hand over to the happy couple.=)

When I'd managed to calm fully down, I felt quite proud of my work and although one or two of the friends I told the near miss story to said, 'You shouldn't tell people that', I realised I wasn't only enjoying having a tale to tell, I was also rather proud of having done a good rescue job.=) LOL!

Here's the piece 'in action':

And here's the happy couple after the ceremony posing for their promised photo with their gift.=)

I really did learn huge amounts from this project.  As usual, that was more what not to do next time than anything, but it was a good learning process, if a little tense at times!

Now then, what's next up....?

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Detail: Ring Bearer Cushion/Pillow - completed project and the wedding!

0 Ring Cushion in the hoop (plus the wedding rehearsal!)

Sigh! I'm having a time and a half getting an even partway decent photo of the work done so far on the ring cushion embroidery! All the pictures turn out with fabric looking no lighter than mid-grey instead of bright white. I'm going to have to try to get later shots outside, I think, but it's rather hard where I live to find a suitable place for it. Maybe I could use our car bonnet/hood!!  Anyway, here's the first day's work.  Below is the shot I took just a few minutes ago after four sessions (and after all earlier photos were rejected for execrable quality!)  This one is quite bad enough, but those made it look good....

Some parts I'm happy with, some not so good, but I'm hoping that they'll look much better once things like sepals and stems appear.

Last night was the rehearsal, so I cobbled up a quick dummy cushion so that it could be used.  Here you can see my trialling two of my own rings on the mock up to test the padding.  What I've done is to cut, in effect, three squares of lightweight quilt batting and cut holes in the centre of two of them so that there's a distinct dip where the rings can lay safely.  A few people at the rehearsal actually thought this was the real thing and was really nice!!!=)  I was just thinking the other day how very easy many people are to impress....

Here's the dummy run of the 'rings bit'.  Marion (the bride) kindly agreed to let me trial the real rings to give the padding a thorough test, although this fabric is smoother than the real thing will be with embroidery standing proud and natural slubs in the silk.  As you can see, the best man is bringing the rings over.

The rehearsal was a very international event.  Above you have the bride (French) and groom (Malaysian), with the witnesses - the best man and his (Japanese) wife, as well as Sir (German) by the door checking the list of what happens when.  On the right is the chairman (sitting down) who will be giving the announcements in Chinese as well as English for the groom's family.=)  The second photo is the team discussing arrangements for the post ceremony catering.  Rod, seated on the right, was the perfect choice being unashamed to admit how much he LOVES his food!!=)

The chairman's wife had commented on what nice fabric the mock up cushion was and I said that, yes, if one were to trim it up around the edges, one could make it into something simple, but pretty enough.  So, that got me thinking about making some braids to trim up the edges of the real thing and these are the threads I fished out last night.  Of course, I won't be using them all and the choice of metallic will be influenced by which goes best with the final looks of the design.

The couple's rings are white gold, so silver coloured, so I rejected bright, yellow golds at once and left silver and the two soft golds out to choose from later on.

I also thought a few of these tiny beads would look nice around the finished design to add some sparkle.  They're the iridescent ones on a more or less clear 'base', (as opposed to a white basis) and look rather pretty.

So, still plenty to do, but the stitchery is progressing quite well and ideas are still flowing for making improvements.  More next weekend!

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014

Detail: Ring Cushion in the hoop (plus the wedding rehearsal!)