Stumpwork Floral or Herb Robert

I can't even begin to say how honored I am that the stumpwork dragonfly tutorial will be used in an EGA class.  It is exactly the type of thing I hoped for and why I started blogging.  My nieces and nephews have little interest in learning the rather obsolete things I have to share.  When I was in college needle arts was a certificate program.  While learning needlework I read about and saw some pictures of stumpwork but couldn't find any how to books.  My embroidery teachers didn't know how stumpwork was done.  So the resent  renaissance of obscure needlework and lacework has been a real joy to see. 

So the request to use my tutorial got me thinking about how I wish all the references we have now were available when I was young.  How much I still love finding embroidered projects that have been shared on the Internet.  So today I decided to share a piece of stumpwork I've been working on since March.  It is a larger stumpwork piece designed by Jane Nicholas in Her "Stumpwork Medieval Floral" book.  The instructions start on page 48.  She has more beautiful books than this but I find the floral book more inspirational.  The piece I was working on is very well stitched but the butterfly is not realistic enough.  The size of the butterfly is 3/4 of an inch by 1 inch.

So I hope to make a new butterfly and enter this piece in next year's fair.  I thought if I posted it here that it might inspire others to try stumpwork and also that I might get some helpful hints from other embroiderers. 

Full embroidered piece.  The basic embroidery is finished but several wire frame petals need to be made as well as some seed pods.

I am quite proud of the leaves.  They were satin stitched one direction and then the opposite direction to make a padded satin stitch.  The stems were stem stitched using multiple colors of thread to add interest.

The top left flower has a wire framed petal that has loose threads that show and I can't clip them out.  I believe this is because I was a little off the grain of the fabric when I embroidered over the wire frame.  I hope that is the cause because I could use a felt tip pen to cover the ends but personally I need too know why it happened.  In this close up you can see how sloppy the butterfly was embroidered.  It is really cute but that isn't what I wanted for the piece.

I hope that this inspired someone to try stumpwork or any other embroidery!  If you know what I am doing wrong I hope you will post here and help me out because I'm stuck on this piece.

Thanks for looking!