Embroidered Book Cover - Two and a Half Strawberries

Strawberry 1 (second strawberry from the top) - Satin stitch, with french knots in a single thread of black.

The french knots look a bit mishappen because they tend to lodge under the long satin stitches.

I had originally done the french knots in palest pink - but the strawberry look comical in some way. It looks a lot more mature with black spots.

I was able to couch the sepals because their smallness required a thin gold thread, not the stranded DMC I'm waiting for. They are done in feather stitch, btw. I learnt how to do it yesterday from watching Mary's video on it :-)

Strawberry 2 - (at the bottom) Beaded

It looks HEAPS darker than it actually is. They are the same beads that I used on the carnation on the front cover. A dark ruby, whereas in the scan they look almost black.

Something I learnt the hard way : if there is a part to be couched (the sepals again, in satin stitch)) when heavy beading is to be done, couch first. Otherwise it's just about impossible to 'get in there' and get a good shape.

I think that the strawberry looks uneven in shape but that's from the pattern of the beading, not from the original drawn shape of it. I did the left 'half' first in curved rows, but then there didn't end up to be room for as many rows on the right hand side. I should have worked the entire shape, (tho whether outwards or inwards, I couldn't say until I try it)

I like the pointier shape of the sepals in this one better than in the first one, where they are kind of round edged and blodgy - tho that's the way they appear in the historical examples.

I was concerned that a purely beaded strawberry would be out of place, being 'richer' than the other elements in the design, although I have used a few beads on the carnations.
However, it's all going to end up outlined in gold, and will have a thick stem of gold running right up the middle of it, so I think it'll fit in ok. I had to do this beaded one down the bottom, or else I would have ended up with a lot of beaded stuff up the top of the design, given the carnations are up there.

Strawberry 3 (at the top) French Knots

This strawberry is around half done. It's composed entirely of French knots packed together. (I really must post the various strawberry designs I've found).

I've put in one red, and the white dots. I was going to put in a lighter red as a second red, but I thinking I might go for a darker red. That is - IF I have a darker red/brown than the one I used as the first colour. We'll see.

I think that
* I was tired when I did this one
* I'm just not very good at French knots

I may re-do it. They haven't come out even in size - which would imply that I'm not using the same pulling on the thread tension each time.