Finally finished a needlework project
It's been in the works since fall of 2011 when I took this class in Naples, Florida at the Embroiderer's Guild of American National Seminar. The design and class were by Marsha Papay-Gomola.
Technically, this is called "stumpwork" and involves padding some parts and making detached elements, some with wire inside so they can be adjusted and shaped. All the macaws and some of the leaves are padded, some leaves and the butterfly are soft detached elements, most leaves are wired.
The bright birds make me happy!
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love the spiders!
My original design from years ago is this one:
But I have been learning new skills. I do have some other original designs that I need to do before my hands and eyes give out.
And well deserved.
Ty for sharing! 
What is the size of this piece? What are you going to do with it? I love the birds too 
What an accomplishment !!
for almost 5 years, lol. Every time I get the bag out of the closet to work on it, my cat, Sammy, comes running to attack the yarn. I have to keep stopping. She's got some sort of kitty radar because she will bolt up out of a sound sleep, sigh. It's large. I got it off of eBay and was a vintage needlepoint kit that came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here's the pic that came with it:
That takes me back to when I was a kid (I still have an unfinished embroidery piece in a bag in my closet). It was one of the earliest needlework types I taught myself along with cross-stitch, and would do it along with knitting. Right after college, I ended up getting into petit point on 20 mesh but that's been almost 40 years ago and I briefly morphed into doing some lace crochet with cotton thread or embroidery thread (for doilies) and even contemplated trying tatting but never got far with that. I did end up revisiting cross-stitch again about 15 years ago when I made a Tunisian crochet baby blanket for one of my nieces that had a pattern of tiny flowers and panel borders done as a cross-stitch decoration.
Considering that years ago I was surprised to see sewing machines with embroidery settings, I was wondering if people were still doing hand-embroidery anymore. Like most crafters, I have a stack of unfinished things sitting around too and I am happy to see that you got back to this one. The 3D effect is perfect.
Beautiful!!!!
Afraid I don't have the patience or eyesight to do an intricate project like that. It definitely took patience and skill.
