Icing with DMC Memory Thread: A Festive Shamrock Cookie

This is how it looks now - the first Shamrock cookie. There will be more swirls, and these are not tacked down yet, as I will have to move them around a bit to decide how much and where to put them.
















As always, with a new project, it didn't go exactly as I thought it would. I had assumed that it would be a simple thing to push the end of the Memory Thread down through a hole to the back, shape the coils, and then put the end to the back. That did not work, due to the fact that the M.T. is very soft and very bendable. A learning experience! That worked when I was making coral with it, but not for this.

Instead, I cut short lengths, approximately 6" long, and then shaped the coils, using needle nosed pliers. The M.T., as it comes off the spindle, needs to be smoothed out by running it between the thumb and something hard and smooth.

I'm showing this mostly in pictures, as it's easier to explain. There was more error than trial going on here, but as always, I enjoy a challenge!!

Memory Thread is delightfully easy to work with, and has many possibilities - one just has to keep trying different things with it.

I haven't couched it down yet, and decided the best thing to do here is to place these coils where they look best - following the photo I found when I "searched" Shamrock cookies. Then I will place them on a tracing of the pattern so I'll know where they need to go - and stitch them down one at a time onto the surface of the cookie.

The last photo shows the coil after I twisted it to go in two different directions. This was easier, I found, than trying to make the "S" shape as it appears on the cookie - I tried it both ways.

One great thing about surface embellishment is that if mistakes are made - it's very very easy to take it off, as long as one is careful not to damage the surface of the background stitching.

This Irish cookie thing seems a bit boring, but simple and boring are all I've been capable of the last few weeks.

Now, I've started to envision uses for them, and have also looked at more pictures, and can see a St. Patrick's Day table - or any festive occasion in March, with these cookies just lying scattered around on the tablecloth as decorative accents - what fun!! I have now figured out how to do a rainbow with a pot o' gold beneath it!!