My Needle Box

A little of this, a little of that....

   I have been prepping for starting my flat op casket, and one of the things that really bothers me is my inability to glue a finished piece of embroidery onto 'something' . Anything.  The originals were glued and I find that whenever I try and glue an embroidery to a flat surface, its absolutely riddled with bubbles in the background.  Of coarse the easiest thing would be to cover the background with embroidery and avoid the whole situation, but I want my background to be unworked~ the dutchess silk satin absolutely glows and is so beautiful! So I designed this little project for more practice, and to try out some different techniques...not to mention I wanted something pretty, something more fitting, to keep my needle in, instead of this~

  A hideous plastic zip bag! I have a few needle books, but I like to keep my needles in their original packages~ this way I can keep better track of if I am getting low on a certain one or not, and I know who made it and what size it is....and a zip bag...well how ugly is that!?

  I am planing all sorts of techniques for my flat top casket~ one being silk wrapped parchment strips. If you are familiar with 17th c stumpwork or caskets, you will probably recognize the silk wrapped parchment loupes often used in the borders of cartouches~ but above here, there are silk wrapped parchment elements included in the lace of this 17th c gown~ I love the little flowers!

 First I made my box from a thick board and covered it with hand marbled paper...I love making boxes!

 Next, a simple embroidery was worked, I wanted lots of open background showing. Two little roses inspired by a favorite antique sampler went center of the cushion, and the waves were worked in 4 silver smooth passing. Real silver spangles added some quaint bling!

 I used wheat paste to glue the silk satin to my box, and of coarse~ STILL full of bubbles and not quite flat~ but better. I try so hard to keep the back of my embroidery FLAT, and am thinking, since doing this little experiment, that perhaps backing the silk satin with paper before working the embroidery, would help with the bubble issue. You can see my trinket box in the background~ and may be asking, well, that was flat~ so what is your problem??? Well... I cheated on my trinket box. I guess its not really cheating....but I didn't glue the panels on~ I tacked them on over a light padding, like in upholstery.  When it comes time to mount the embroidery to my casket, I do not want to still be experimenting with techniques.  I like how the cushion turned out, like it aLOT actually~ but see on the side~ there are bubbles. One cannot just add more glue, or it will soak thru the fabric.

  I love my parchment flowers! I am planing many parchment elements on my flat top! Cant wait to start!!!

 There is lots of room for my needles now, so all in all, it was a good learning experience, and tho my background still has bubbles and I'm not happy with that...I have a pretty little needle box I didn't have last week.