Fool's Gold - Maire's RR block

I've finished the couched frilly leaves at the bottom of the block with 4 rows of gold cording..  I haven't beaded inside the leaves yet but you can see in the bottom photo how it will look..  I wasn't sure how if I want just a little beading along the stem or more all over side the leaf... So I stuck it in photoshop and tried it both ways..

I still have a few ends to trim and the loose ends  on the right will not be finished until I do the satin stitched leaf there...  I scanned the piece so the gold doesn't show up very well...

I'm doing the bird on a hoop the same as I do birds on felt.  So you can see that I did the same first step as always... a tight chain stitch all the way around...  Sometimes I run the cording along side the chain stitch but this time I am putting it right on top of the chain stitch.

The main feature on the bird was to be the jeweled wing which I did tonight..  At this point it is ready to cut out and applique on the block...

This is the thickest gold cording which I use...BUT it also the worst to finish as it does fray terribly. As you can see it is actually braided.  If I were doing it on felt I could poke a hole with an awl and put the end to the back.  But this metallic fabric is so fragile I don't dare poke a hole in it so I have solved the fraying ends in another way..

When I can tell where the cording is going to end I massage that section with a tiny bit of E6000 glue and as it dries I compress it with my fingers and then satin stitch the end and trim... You can see this technique where the cording on the head ends at the wing... Ordinarily I am hesitant to use glue on my projects but in some cases it does the job better than anything else.

The end on the right I will trim when I applique it on the block.