Blackwork Birthday Card Completed

I’m pleased to report that I finished the stitching for my Grandma’s 90^th birthday card earlier this week (see A new blackwork project). Below is an image of what Rosa looked like before I embellished it with filling stitches and seed beads.

Initially, I had planned on using a combination of pink and silver for the filling stitches, until I remembered that I’d used up the last of my silver thread (I must remember to get some more). I knew that I wanted to incorporate metallic thread, and as I had an adequate supply of gold (DMC shade 5284) for my project, I opted for a gold and red colour scheme. I’ve had my gold thread for quite some time, so to clear up any confusion, I should point out that the shade is now known as DMC Light Effects E3852.

I decided that I would use gold thread for the centres of the teardrop shapes, and had thought of using a combination of gold and DMC shade 321 (red) for the rest of the teardrop shapes. The result looked absolutely dreadful, and the visual impact of the gold centres was lost, so I hastily abandoned that idea.

For the centres of the small flowers, I used gold thread and Mill Hill glass seed beads (shade 02011). I felt I wanted to use a slightly different shade of red for the petals, so used DMC shade 498.

After completing the filling stitches in the centre of the design, I thought I was done. However, when I sat back and assessed the overall look of my work, I had an overwhelming feeling that it lacked something.

I’d been looking at the border, pondering over what I could do with it. Suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration, and it became blindingly obvious. Recently, my friend over at EglantineStitchery had written about couching in a number of her posts, and having seen photographs of the results that can be achieved with couching, I thought I’d give it a try.

For a first attempt, I have to profess I feel quite proud of myself. In my opinion, the couching was precisely what was required to make my piece look truly complete, and give it the wow factor.

Seeing as the video for my previous Blackwork birthday card (see Blackwork Birthday Card) was so warmly received, I thought I’d try my hand at creating what I consider to be a slightly more professional-looking video. I must forewarn you though that the video is quite lengthy. In addition, the quality of some of the images is far from perfect, as they look slightly blurred in places.

I trust that you were able to view the video without any problems, as I recently attempted to upload it to Facebook and received a Notification of Alleged Copyright Infringement.

Anyway, having completed the stitching, my next task was to wave a magic wand and… [Cue drum roll] Ta-Dah!

Front of card

Inside of card

Back of card