Good morning and Happy Wednesday! I hope you had a terrific weekend!

It was a holiday weekend here in the States (Memorial Day), so a three-day weekend for many. Here in Kansas, my weekend involved (finally!) moving into my newly rebuilt / renovated house…

…only to have to move out again Monday evening (this time to a temporary Airbnb rental), due to a major plumbing issue.

So life is still quite hectic here.

I’m convinced that there must be, eventually, a season of calm ahead. Well, the key is to forge on ahead! And to that end, today, we’re going to finish up Little Blooms. Specifically, we’ll accomplish the two finishing touches – the embroidered scalloped edge on the flap and the snap closure.

Let’s go get this project finished, shall we?

Finally, today, we construct the Little Blooms mini snap purse!

Today’s article is rather lengthy because we need to cover the whole construction process so you can finish it in one work session. I can’t fit the finishing touches into this article, though, so next week, we will cover the final bits – adding the hand embroidered trim on the outside edge of the flap and sewing the other half of the snap in place. (I have an easy method for that!)

If you are a member on Patreon, today you will have the final PDF for the project and it will take you through all the construction as well as the finishing touches.

And – Big News! – if you have been patiently awaiting a materials kit for Little Blooms, at long last, we have some available now!

Let’s get on with the construction!

Another topic that generated a lot of questions around the goldwork altar cover project is how I attached the large semi-precious gemstone to the medallion, the central decorative piece on the altar cover.

There are different ways that stones can be attached to goldwork. When considering how to attach a stone, you have to think in terms of size and, especially, of usage. If your piece is going to be framed and rarely if ever handled, you have some wiggle room in how stringent you are with the attachment of the stone(s). But if you’re creating a piece that will be used, moved, folded, and so forth, it’s a good idea to figure out some way to make sure the stone is super duper secure.

Initially, we were looking at a faceted stone for this piece, but two problems presented themselves: 1. a faceted stone of any size is normally very deeply cut on the back – and that was the case with the stones that we had to choose from. Their depth made them problematic. 2. Because of their depth, setting them into any hardware (jeweler’s setting) would increase their weight and their height and make sewing them on and working them into the embroidery difficult and – I thought – rather ungainly. As much as I prefer a faceted stone for its brilliance, if the stone doesn’t have a flat back – or at least a very shallow back – it seems awkward on a textile.

One of the techniques we used on the goldwork altar cover we recently finished was coating the back of the embroidery with adhesive or paste.

When I mentioned this briefly in the finish article on the project, it generated a lot of discussion and questions via email. Several people asked if I would revisit the topic and explain how we did this step.

So, today, briefly – because it’s a very simple, uncomplicated process – I’ll show you what we did.

Last week in our Little Blooms stitch-along, we finished the embroidery on the project.

Today, we are going to start the finish process with two preparatory steps that you should not skip.

These two steps are preliminary to cutting out and constructing the snap purse. They will make the finishing easier and the final outcome better

If you’re just joining in, you’ll find the previous installments of this stitch-along all listed here in the Little Blooms project index. Members of the Needle ‘n Thread community on Patreon will receive a downloadable PDF that will include all the finishing steps in one download. This last PDF will cover today’s installment (part 6) as well as part 7 (construction) and 8 (stitched trim), and it will be available when we get to the construction part of the purse in the next lesson.

Last the week, I took the opportunity (that’s code for “I started this thing that I should have started two months ago”) to test a little whitework project.

I thought I’d give you a little sneak peek today.

And that’s code for “I had planned a much more intricate blog post for this morning, but it isn’t ready, so instead, I found something short and sweet for you.”

Here’s a little secret I’m almost embarrassed to share:

I didn’t immerse myself in any of the “Royal Events” for the coronation last week.

I know! I know! Even with all that embroidery to gaze upon!

When I finally had the time and the inclination, though, I scoured about for some good needlework chit-chat related to the grand event. Of course, the anointing screen worked on by the RSN was big news. It seemed to take the forefront in embroidery chatter.

But to me, the most impressive thing that I read about was Jenny Adin-Christie’s involvement in refurbishing the heralds’ garb, which she talked about here on Instagram. That is pretty cool! What a job! And I loved her pictures of the goldwork applied on the velvet.

But let’s morph into another subject here – along the same lines, but perhaps somewhat more accessible?