Sensu - Framing and Fan Outline

Hi everyone, long time no see !
I have been really busy with school lately and didn’t have a lot of time to stitch. I went to a research internship in France for 6 weeks and couldn’t bring my big frame in my luggage lol. I did a little bit of cross stitch (easier to put in a bag) but not that much because i was very busy at the univeristy there.
Because I was in Europe, i missed my monthly meeting of Japanese Embroidery in November, but would never missed the December one .

This meeting was special : we just received our Phase 2-3 kit and we planned to frame it before our April class ! While all the other stitchers chose Hiogi, i went with the Sensu !

(Thanks to Dima for the lovely picture ! ) 

(If you ask, no my phase 1 is not finished - far from it - but I need a rest from this frustrating piece xD )

For those who are not familiar with the Japanese Embroidery Center curriculum, instead of doing two separated pieces for phase 2 and 3 , there is the option to combine both in one piece . To be honest,  I don’t like the phase 2 fan so I find this option 2-3 very convenient . Phase 3 projects are appealing me, but it means going throught phase 2 first. I prefer enjoy one of the Phase 3 later when this 2-3 will be done .... In 5 years at my actual pace, i suppose xD .

The kit arrived with all needed threads, cottons to sew in fabric ends, chart box, one pair of lovely komas, and ... no indication on where the colours go ! Should I guess where to put all those 19 colours??  I can’t even tell the difference between the greens xD  Dima emailed the JEC and they gave us the colour chart. We were glad they answered very fast.

It took all day to sew our fabric ends, frame and double-lace our projects. A very long process, but since our piece may sit on the frame for a long time, it's a better idea to have it double laced.

Before class, we have some "homework" to do : Outline of the fans, and foundations.

As you can see, the top of the fan et the outline of the small one are not printed on the fabric. Nancy told us it was because the fabric may distort on the framing process. In order to have a beautiful piece with straight line, we have to trace the design on the fabric ourselves after framing.

I used tracing paper to trace the shape of the fan, and some of the cloud lines . As you can see, my blue lines for the cloud don’t match the ones printed on the fabric . This is the distortion. You can’t see it on the picture, but I had to add 1-2 mm to each end of my tracing to martch the fabric .
When satisified with everything , i attached the paper to the fabric , making sure to put my needle in places that will be covered. This fabric looks forgiving if I pierce a hole in the wrong place, but I prefer to develop good habits now.

When this holding was done, I made an outline of held thread following the traced blue line.

I also had to outline the folded fan on the bottom

Eeeek. The lines are not perfectly straight. This thing is hard, and I LOVE perfect things!! 

I suppose i have to do a third line on the bottom but i am not sure, i prefer to have more instruction before doing anything. I only did the outline for the part that will need foundation inside.

And completed, with paper removed  :

Sensu is now ready to be stitched !!! 

Now that I’m back, with courses and exams done, I expect to do a little bit of embroidery before going to see my family and leave my frame all alone for another 2 weeks for Christmas . I can’t wait to put some colors on this Sensu !

I may post some pictures of my progress on foundations, and give some news about the phase 1 Bouquet, that is growing quite slowly . I progressed a lot since my last post in May, but left it untouched for the last 2 months. Since i have some thing to do before my april class, i prefer concentrate on this Sensu. I will go back to the Bouquet after ... or maybe if i get tired to do foundation and twisting thread. It becomes boring after some time xD