Crewel projects

I'm working on a ring bearer pillow for a friend's wedding.  She wanted a strawberry motif.

After numerous sketches and tracings I came up with this.

I thought that if perhaps I scanned my recent pieces, the colors would come out more accurate. I was correct. Scanning worked perfectly (when I tried to photograph this fabric when I bought it, it came out looking almost white).

Here's the start of the ring bearer pillow embroidery.  So far I'm pleased with it. I'm making notes of the colors I'm using on the final design tracing.  To get the design onto the cotton fabric, first I traced it using Charcopy "carbon" paper.  It worked well but the chalk-like lines brushed off quickly, so I traced over them with a very fine Pigma pen in a brown. Now the design is there to stay. I'll have to be careful to cover all of the design lines. 

I'm using Appleton crewel wool and working in a hoop.

I've begun playing around with design ideas for finishing. I have enough fabric in case I want to make self-piping---but I'm thinking white might really set it off.  It'll be a while, but it's fun to plan.

And here's a scan of the blue crewel piece showing the accurate colors.  It's set aside for now while I work on the ring bearer pillow.