Erica Wilson Beginners Spring Tree Picture CREWEL part two

 

                 So , hundreds of pink flowers later , this is where I,m up to .

I really wasn't enjoying stitching with such fat wool , but felt happy again as I started on the cheerful flowers and butterflies.

Satin stitch , Bullion knots (scary with wool ) and French knots , Stem stitch ,Open Cretan stitch , Straight stitch ,Couching stitch for the grass along the bottom in two colours and Fishbone stitch for the leaves .

It really is a charming 1970's colourful sampler of stitches . 

I noticed that the previous owner of this vintage kit had tried to embroider the tree trunk and had obviously given up and ripped it all out . Aw ! Bless them !... but it is difficult . I only noticed this when I held it up to the light and seen all the little pin holes ! 

So now I wondered if there was going to be enough brown wool left for me to re-do it ?

                                                 The scary tree trunk 

The stitch for this was a kind of Laid-work stitch/weaving stitch , not very well explained on the instruction sheet and actually quite difficult for a beginner  . I,m finding it difficult and I,m a fairly experienced stitcher . So strange and fiddly doing embroidery with such chunky acrylic wool !  The brown is fine crewel wool and the green is the fat wool . It is like fat knitting wool !  A strange combination and very hard to pull the fat wool through the thin material .

I just said to myself " Get on with it and don't worry about it too much !"

I can quite understand why the previous owner , gave up with it and ripped it all out !

ANYWAY and several cups of tea later.....

I completed the tree trunk ! Hooray ! :) 

I,m wondering if there was enough brown wool left now , to do the Squirrel.

Up until this point , I really was not liking this kit very much , but now I,m thinking it is looking rather fun !   Vintage kits are fun !

The colours are a lot brighter than on the completed picture on the kit packet . 

Like you'd need sunglasses ! Maybe colours have faded over the last thirty ... Oh ! My Goodness! ... Forty-seven years ! 

Actually the instructions are pretty much in the order that I,m doing it  . I do suggest that a complete beginner would follow the instructions and most of the stitch instructions are great !

I cant wait to embroider that funny old Mr Froggy , but I always like to embroider the most boring and difficult bits first and save the best bits until last . Mr Froggy will be last .

The Squirrels are next !

p.s So sorry about all the strange paragraphs and gaps . Blogger recently changed how we do everything on here and it is very confusing now .Very annoying! Even the photographs are difficult and time consuming to put on  . They have to go on one at a time or they all come on in the wrong order ...... grrrrrr  !

p.p.s  No snow here , lashing down with rain !  Still waiting for my vaccine .

p.p.ps. Keep warm and stay home , stay safe , help the NHS and save lives !