This was a learning experience.
I learned:
- Overall, I'm very happy with the embroidery.
- I love the silk gimp used for the leaves and the tree and I love the raised stitch used for the grass mounds. I will use both again.
- Tent stitch over one on linen gives a tapestry-like effect that I love--but I don't want to do my casket in that technique.
- Overall, I'm not so happy with the finish-finishing. (so, what's new about that)
- I wish I had realized that my finished embroidery didn't quite fit the measurements of the original, because I would have cut the finishing materials differently.
- I also wish I had treated the mounting of the finished fabrics differently. Instead of gluing them to the Skirtex and mounting board, I would have ironed light-weight lining to the back to stabilize the silks, and then I would have laced the silk to the backings. This would have allowed me to remove them and recut the mountings to fit the embroidery.
- No matter how I finagled the inner box, there is still a gap between the box and the "lid" or front of the piece. It won't be obvious leaning up against the back of the cabinet where it will live, so I guess I can live with it. I also guess I don't really have a choice unless I do the whole project again. That is not going to happen.
- I really wish I hadn't bent the outside when trying to mount the inner box. Maybe a heavier mounting board would have prevented that. Or it may have been worse.
The good thing is that my stripes matched up pretty well on the lining.
Now I need to find some other trouble to get into.
As much as I have to do in my stash, I always have trouble deciding exactly what I want to do when I finish a major project. I might even have a list of things to do, and I still feel a little lost for a bit, until something else jumps up and down for my attention.
I think this means I'm more into the process than the product.