In the autumn it’s 50 years since my stitching group was formed. It was originally part of the Embroiderer’s Guild until they decided a few years ago to cast all the individual guilds adrift so now we are a thriving independent stitch group called Skipton Stitchers.

It was suggested that we do a joint project to celebrate and one member came up with the great idea of each of us stitching one or two small pieces in gold, 50 altogether, which could then be displayed at places such as Yarndale.

We were each duly given a card disc about 4″ in diametre, a piece of wadding and some felt to back it with. We could do what we liked so long as the background was gold coloured and the theme was gold.

I had a peruse on Pinterest on possible designs and decided on a cone flower (echinacea ) I thought it was an interesting shape but wasn’t too complicated. Ages ago I stitched a cat cushion by Ragged Ruff Designs, the cat was surrounded by cone flowers, I couldn’t find the pattern on my computer but I’d also used it on a denim jacket so I used that as a basis for my template…

I rummaged round in my silk remnants box and found a silk dupion in a gorgeous soft gold colour, perfect for the background. I found a square of gold leather too so I earmarked that for the centre of the flower. I also spotted some fancy gold fabric and after a play around I decided to use that for the petals rather than having to embroider and fill each petal. I could just edge it in gold thread then.

I nearly had a disaster when I tried to iron bondaweb onto the fancy gold fabric as it started to melt! Luckily I was just on the very edge of the fabric so I quickly found a pressing cloth and used that to protect the fabric.

I drew on the petals with a Frixion pen, planning to couch the gold thread down. I had to change my plans however as you need to use a large chenille needle to thread the ends through to the back and betweeb bondaweb, silk and some cotton I’d put behind to support the silk, I couldn’t get the needle through even with the biggest one I could find. I rummaged in my box of gold threads, most of which I inherited off my mother so goodness know how old they are! I found a thin coiled wire thread which I though was like the purl wire I used in the goldwork bee so I stretched it out a bit and started couching it down.

I’ve edged all the petals in the coiled wire but I’m not convinced it was the same type of wire as it is very thin and doesn’t hold the line very well…it looks pretty though!

I tacked a small piece of felt on the central cone to give the gold leather a bit of shape, I then stitched the gold leather down and this time used a purl wire to edge it.

I used a soft gold tape doubled up to make the stem and that was my embroidery complete. I had mulled over the idea of stitching on the background but actually I like the simplicity of the design.

Once the embroidery was finished I trimmed it to an inch wider than the disc, gathered the edge and pulled it in round the cardboard (which I’d already glued a circle of batting too) to make like a Suffolk puff (Yoyo). After a bit of fiddling to neaten the gathers, I stitched a circle of felt on the back to finish it off.

I’m pretty pleased with it, I love how the different gold fabrics work, I’m not sure how long the gold thread will stay neat but hopefully it will still look good for Yarndale, the show in September where they are all going to be on display.