White Orchid finished

For those of you who have been following this Blog for awhile, you may remember the White Orchid with the Bargello background. Well, it is finished, but I'm not happy with it. The colors in the orchid are too pale and there isn't enough definition. It actually looks better in the photo than it does in real life! I also messed up on the counts in several places, so the finished piece doesn't really match the charted design. This wouldn't matter except that I had planned for this to be a published design that others need to be able to follow! Unless I can "fix" it, it will not be published. I will play around with some outlining and maybe some decorative stitches to try to fix it, but I'm not holding my breath!

Unfortunately, not every design is a winner! Sometimes it just doesn't work out. The design may be bad, the threads and/or colors may be wrong, the stitch patterns may be unfortunate. But we can learn from our mistakes. Accepting failure is as important as enjoying success, just not as much fun!

I will go ahead and stitch the Black Orchid next, as planned. I will study the colors more though, before I start. And I will make a serious effort to COUNT CORRECTLY!!!!! I will edit & correct the charts as I go along. Eventually, at least the Vanilla Orchid (finished last year) will become a published design. We'll have to see about the black & white ones!

White Orchid Progress #3

I've been working on the bargello background for the White Orchid. It is half finished. It goes fairly quickly once the pattern row is established. It is all Silk & Ivory. (The "spot" on the lower right isn't a spot, it is a little piece of sticky-backed suede that I use like a thimble.)

White Orchid Progress #2

I finished the White Orchid last night. So far this piece is coming along nicely. I didn't have to rip anymore! Now on to the bargello background. I hope to get that started tonight. I have not yet settled on the background colors. I have two families of Silk & Ivory that I have to choose from. One is pinker than the other.

I think it is interesting that every time I do a scan of this piece, the colors are different. Next time I'll have to go to the camera as it will become too large for the scanner. I wonder if it will be yet another color! The canvas is actually Eggshell, not blue or pink. The sort of center of the flower is a medium purple shade, not pink.

White Orchid Progress

I have made progress on the White Orchid. I did have to rip out the Kreinik & orchid colored floss as I had them backwards! But I got that fixed and got quite a bit more done.

The White Orchid is the 2nd in a series of three. The first, Vanilla Orchid, you can see by searching this blog on "Vanilla Orchid". The next one will be a "black" orchid. All 3 have a Bargello background. They are all the same, except for the colors. Once all 3 color ways are finished, I will be offering this design for sale. I had hoped to have it ready by the end of the year, but it may be a few months longer!

White Orchid

This past Sunday was the annual Stitcher's Retreat here in Las Vegas. I went last year for the first time, so was an "old hand" this year. It is just a fun day. About 30-40 stitchers having a lovely day stitching, chatting, lunching, show & tell, door prizes. All in all, a terrific time.

I started on my next Orchid, the white one, to work on at Retreat. The shading is quite subtle and won't show up too well till the background goes in so there will be some contrast. The canvas is Eggshell. I had planned to use a light pink canvas, but I didn't have a big enough piece. It is coming along well and goes fairly quickly considering it is all Basketweave.