This bellpull is just gorgeous. It’s really coming along. Here’s a closeup of the area I was discussing in the last post on the bellpull (I’ve added some leaves in fly stitch, and finished one of the cluster flowers):
I finished the pomegranate top with cretan stitch. You can compare it with the fly stitch leaves below.
In the leaf on the left below I was aiming for a leaf stitch from my stitch guide, but didn’t read the directions carefully enough to match the diagram. I like the effect though, so I’ll be duplicating whatever this is on the right leaf.
I decided to fill in the center of this blue flower with Castelo Branco laid work stitching. I’m still planning to do a Castelo Branco project with the lovely silks and designs Méri sent me, so I thought I’d get a little bit of practice in.
This post has been brought to you with considerable enthusiastic help from my embroidery partner:
embroidery for ducks 
🙂 Well done, Hannah!
Your crewelwork is becoming wonderful!
I love the pomengranate too 🙂
And your cluster flowers are great 🙂 How hard was it to do the 2/3-buttonhole wheels all even in slope and size? Even with a line for the outside perimeter?
Not too bad because they are so small – the tension is easy to get right and there’s not a lot of room to put the next stitch in so you can’t be too far off. And since it’s not a full circle, small errors in angle are not so obvious. The larger areas of buttonhole on other flowers were actually a lot more difficult. One of those is going to have to be redone since it’s coming loose.
This is really nice! I just ordered a couple of small crewel kits as a birthday present for me so I can’t wait to get started on them. Love the helper!
Happy birthday!
You’ve got a great range of stitches there – are you enjoying them all?
Yes, it keeps things interesting! And I can tell my stitching is improving. This project is giving me a much better sense of how different stitches fit into different shapes.
It is such a pleasure looking at your pictures, beautiful stitching 🙂
thank you!