Gold Master Class - Scrambling to Catch Up

Between creating threads for mermaid grotto rocks, I'm also trying to keep up with the Thistle Threads On-Line University Goldwork Master class.  The first piece is a small sampler featuring a bunch of small samples of complex looking goldwork stitches.  You can see a picture of the finished sampler here.

But before work can really begin on the goldwork, the silk stitching needs to be in place.  Doing that was the "assignment" for May, but since June's addition is just a simple gold stitch or two, we do have time before falling hopelessly behind.

After several weeks of fairly intense work on this (and a fair amount of reverse stitching as well), I have almost half of the silk work done. 

As you can see, the silk is almost entirely done in Queen Stitch. . . which is really pretty, but not especially fast to work.  The intricacies of this stitch have also inspired quite a bit of back and forth over the net.  You can find a very comprehensive summary on Elmsley Rose's blog .  One of the big issues has concerned how much pull to put on the stitch.  I personally think I work this stitch with a moderate pull. . . but looking Tricia's stitched piece, mine seems a little more pulled.  Those of us taking the course have access of photos of the original 17th century piece, and in it, the queen stitches are MUCH more tightly pulled.  Interesting range of variations for this single stitch....