I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this pattern - this has to be one of the most consistently joyful embroidery projects I've undertaken in some time.
When I last left you, I had stitched up 3 flowers and was starting on the leaves and vines. I LOVE that blue flower, by the way. I could take and show you pictures of that blue flower all day...
I mostly stuck to the Lolli and Grace pattern, but I did a fw things differently, I'll try to point them all out. Up above is one tiny difference - as I mentioned I used more of a fishbone stitch for my leaves as opposed to satin stitch. And on the leaf above, if you squint you'll see the tiniest sparkle- I blended 1 strand of Etoile floss with 1 strand of the yellow green the pattern called for. It was an interesting effect, but as you can see, so subtle it's hard to discern...
Next I tackled the largest pink flower - I was intimidated by the floss blending and wasn't sure if I'd like the finished product...
But I really enjoyed this too! It's really bright and graphic and much lovelier than I expected.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this project is how I enjoyed the colors in every light...
Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I choose colors for a project in broad daylight, and I only like my project in nice bright light, or vice versa, I choose my colors in the evening, and find I hate my project in bright light. Anne's colors were just consistently beautiful in every light, in my opinion!
You can see above that sometimes my fabric looks bright green, sometimes lime green or khakhi - and in every instance, the floss colors pop and work beautifully!
I did a real cruddy trace job and my trace lines were all over the place - so I stitched a thin split stitch on the inside of that big pink flower using 2 strands of thread, to cover my messy trace job.
Here I am most of the way through, but at this point realizing I had LOTS of details to fill in. All the same, I loved looking at this project, no matter what stage it was in.
These little red flowers were supposed to be Lazy daisy stitches in the pattern, but I decided to do clusters of French knots instead...
Progress on those tiny French knots was slow but so satisfying and restful...
French Knot Frustrations
I don't always enjoy French knots, however!
I had a heck of a time feeling happy with the French knots in the centers of the large flowers - I just was never satisfied with my placement of them, the way I spaced them looked haphazard and messy to me...
The French knots always looked ok to me in the beginning, when there was a good amount of space between them...
But filling in the spaces made them look too cluttered and messy to me.
More messy flower centers on those bottom 2 flowers - ok I realize I am nit-picking - but it's hard not to be obsessed with tiny details in such a lovely project.
So I picked out all my French knots for the 5th time and tried again!
I did a simple chain stitch in place of the French knot ring, and I instantly felt 100% happier with the look! This is an important lesson, I think - if you're not happy with a given stitch, don't be afraid to just try something different.
Choosing my One Meaningful Word
Choosing my one meaningful word for the year was hard for me - Anne offers plenty of options:
It was hard to choose the one word that spoke the most to me...
Well, this one fits, but as a cancer survivor, I am hesitant to use that label because I don't want cancer to define me. It was something that happened to me, but cancer is not me - there was so much more before and after cancer to define me.
So while I recognize the value of this term and all that it implies, I kept looking...
This applied, too - after cancer treatment, I have experienced so many little moments of pure joy which are overwhelming. The smallest things that I never had the grace or ability to see as blessings or beautiful before, now move me. Life, and all its beauty, people in all their uniqueness and strength, overwhelm me with joy.
But still, I kept looking...
I settled on "Bloom" because I love this idea of not just surviving, but blooming - after all the pressure and worry and fear I've endured - to bloom more fully into a new creation, a new person I didn't have the ability to be before...
Finishing my Hoop
I purchased a smaller hoop to frame my finished embroidery...
I was inspired by the bright lime green of my fabric, and the way it matched this green patterned masking tape that was on the table... what if..
I wrapped my wooden hoop in the patterned masking tape - which fit nice and smoothly...
I love the bright pop of color, and how well it coordinates with my fabric.
Here's my finished piece!
I chose to leave off many of the lovely details on the larger flowers- because I loved the large, unbroken areas of satin stitch and was just so proud of my work, I wanted to leave them undisturbed and as simple as possible.
I decided to stitch my one word on a nice olive green felt I had leftover from last year's 12 Months of Christmas stitchalong. I used the suggested dark teal color and filled in the letters with the lightest yellow green in the pattern, I enjoyed the contrast.
Some last lovely details I enjoyed on my piece...
I haven't yet stitched the one word on - but I plan to either pin it or do a light basting stitch because I like the idea of swapping out words or displaying it without the word as I see fit...
What a satisfying project this has been! Thanks to everyone who followed my progress, either here or on Instagram (@nyfloresita), and thanks especially to Anne of Lolli and Grace for designing this pattern and so graciously taking time to cheer me on!
First post: Project a Month - Lolli and Grace
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