Ambrosia Stitches

I am happy to say the drive to be a more organised that I talked about in this post has continued. In addition to this, I have felt the need to have a little more mental order too.  I am finding that the more I work, the more ideas I have.  Sometimes, those ideas have to be acted on right-now-this-minute-or-it-might-somehow-get-lost…..at least that is what I tell myself.  Other ideas need to wait until I have got hold of the necessary supplies.  There are those for a special occasion in the future and I think I have clearly established that being organised and making things well ahead of time really isn’t my style! There are also those plans that are just better for being mulled over before I make a start. So, I came up with revolutionary notion, that is going to blow you all away. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen!

I came up with this crazy strategy of making lists. I know! I am so out there! What did surprise me was just how long the list was.  I must stress I haven’t started work on all of these – I still keep my ongoing number of WIPs down to 3 or 4. However, I liked knowing that I have a clear idea of what my next project is so I don’t have that twitchy feeling I sometimes get when I have finished something and I don’t quite know what to do with myself!

Despite all of this organising, I just had to find a way of getting this colour combination into my life sooner rather than later.  I was thinking blue and white stripes with maybe an orange anchor but just could quite get that to work. So I started work on this:

My my idea is to work the whole things in satin stitch.  The whole background will be blue and white stripes.  The words and the flowers are in satin stitch that is worked in a different direction to the stripes making you want to run your fingers all over it.  I am hoping the overall effect will be a bit like cloisonné.  We shall see.  To try and get an even result, I am using two strands of floss which means this will take forever! Expect this one to be part of the Weekend WIP Round Up for some time to come.

I have made considerable progress with my ice cream colour fair isle.  I love the pattern and it is turning out much as I had envisioned (such a nice feeling when that happens). But…. I don’t think the colours work.  I want the design to allow for lettering across the heart but I can’t get anything to stand out properly.

It it looks quite pretty in these pictures but I have dialled up the contrast and saturation a good bit just so you can see the pattern properly. I am going to persevere with it though and once I have finalised the pattern, I will make it in brighter, stronger colours.  If nothing else, this piece of work has reinforced in my mind what “my” colour and look is when it comes to designing.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!