Whatever Thy Hand Findeth to Do.....

Do It With All Thy Might

  I have been enjoying this week stitching a bit on my trinket box~ things have settled a bit, Satan has left the building (that blasted soie ovale), and I am making progress on the stumpwork panels for my little trinket box. Lion is nestled between two roses made of lots of tiny little detached button hole petals. He is sitting majestically on his drizzle stitch mound...more on that in a little bit.  I finished him and something was bugging me, he just didn't look 'right'...but I couldn't put my finger on what was bothering me about it...until my daughter came in and told me he looked like Billy Ray Sirus with a mullet.... ahh YES! THAT was it~

  I added a bit of fullness to the sides of his mane and like him much better now. What is really fun too, is that his eyes move from side to side, so while a person isn't looking, I can just slide my finger across them, and he appears to be following them with his eyes~ freaked my husband out~ HA!

 The technique I used for the mound and his mane I have always thought of as Drizzle Stitch~ but when I tried to look it up online, all the drizzle stitch I could find was funky looking bullion bumps~ NOT the look I wanted. Early 17th c embroideries have these wonderful gnarled mess of loups for mounds and trees and such~ so I fiddled with my thread a little and came up with a way to get that look~ its super easy and fun to do and really gives a great texture~ made a little video if you want to try it!