I mentioned in my last Mountmellick embroidery stitch along post that I wasn’t entirely happy with the way the stitches sat on the lower left side of the leaf. I wondered if I’d be happy leaving it like that. Of course the answer is “of course not!”
When I drew lines on the picture so I could show you how bad it was, I realised just how bad it was – AWFUL!
It really shows you what a horrible job I did of it.
So I pulled all of that part undone. I found that there were lines underneath it (its a few days since I stitched it, and I couldn’t remember) which guided me badly, so I drew new lines over the top and began restitching.
new guide lines drawn in
I am using the same piece of thread as before, but because I pulled it all undone, it lost much of its twist. So before I started again, I retwisted the thread back to where it should be. Thankfully its not too furry to re-use. If it was, I would have used a new thread.
So here’s the finished result. Possibly to the rest of you it doesn’t look too much different, but I am much more content with it now fixed.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
I can see the difference, and it does look better (having been there, done that. And I always use heaps of guide lines. Read on a blog somewhere recently – the author considered them ‘cheating’. I consider them essential)
Cheating? What?! That’s ridiculous!
If you want to get the best result possible, you do whatever you can to make that happen. Its NOT cheating!
I agree with you both – whatever you need to do to get a result you are happy with cannot be called cheating!
That said, I don’t know whether I would have been unhappy enough with what you first did to re-stitch it. I tend to let things sit for a day or so, do something else and then come back and decide whether I am really unhappy, or just fed up because I’ve just finished and it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped. It’s perfectly possible to get yourself stuck in a cycle of stitching and unpicking that damages the base fabric and doesn’t actually produce a much better result, if you aren’t careful about it!
I did let it sit for a day or two, but I couldn’t let it be. As I am also stitching this publicly, I thought it would be a good teaching point – why I undid it, and what I was trying to achieve. And we are talking about a perfectionist here… I am the master of unstitching and restitching. It doesn’t bother me at all.
In my embroidery, I try to do my best at all times. Getting very deep and serious here, my embroidery is an act of worship to God. It is how I most identify with God – God as creator. Not saying my creations are perfect, and nor will they ever be. But doing my best to honour him is my aim. Wow, that was deep and serious!