Quite often I’ll be working on an embroidery design, and I can feel that its just not working right. Something isn’t right. Sometimes I KNOW where the problem is, and sometimes its hard to know what’s the problem.
Often I try to ignore it and hope that with the finished product it will all just magically come together and be fine. But in my heart of hearts I know that’s just not going to be the case.
When I was working my embroidery Coloured Contours not so long ago, I got to a stage where some diamond stitch that I had put in it was really bothering me. (Its where the curl of double chain stitch now reaches up from the middle bottom.)
I wanted to just leave it and get on with other bits and it would hopefully grow on me. But it didn’t. And so, I carefully cut and pulled it all out, and reworked it with a totally different stitch – the double chain stitch. Immediately I was so much happier with it. It wasn’t jarring anymore.
I’ve been working on a project over the last day or two which just isn’t right. I’ve been hoping that the problem would just go away, but as you know, problems just don’t tend to do that! I know therefore that I am going to have to pull out the problematic area – and I know EXACTLY which bit it is – and figure out a better way of doing it.
How do you get around bits that aren’t working? Do you leave it and let it lead you in a new direction, do you undo it, or do you leave it and forever regret not fixing it? Or is there another option that I haven’t thought of?
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Definitely re-do it, because it affects my whole perception of the piece
In my heart of hearts, when I know it’s just NQR – not quite right – I usually sigh, moan, avoid the piece for a while, grumble, go back and look at it, avoid it again… and eventually, I get sick of avoiding it, and sick of being irritated by it, and I launch in and fix it. But golly, I do not like it when that happens! And for some reason, it seems to happen to me a lot. Especially lately. Argh.
Best,
Mary
I have to stop and leave it for the day. If I try to force a solution in the same sitting, I always end up doing something I’m less than satisfied with. If I can’t solve the problem the next day, I force myself to set the piece aside again, repeating the process until inspiration strikes. It’s even better if I can get away from it for several days in a row, because then I get a fresher perspective. That’s hard to do, though, because the problem continues to be a burr in the saddle until it is solved. And sometimes it’s hard to have faith that I’ll come up with the right fix; I worry that this time I just won’t be able to figure it out.
I prop it up somewhere and stare at it in between doing other things. Direct different lights at it, from different angles, sometimes. Drape different threads over the piece. Swear and mutter to myself, and wait. Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve found the solutions are coming to me more quickly than they used to.
I only leave it in and carry on if I am not sure whether it is wrong or not. Sometimes the next stage reveals the answer.