Thursday, September 8, 2016

Crawling Out of the Woodwork - Elegance of the Orient

Good News Everyone! Elegance of the Orient has finally seen the light of day and gotten some long overdue attention. It's so strange that I am having such trouble with this project, when there is so little left to be done. I guess part of the problem is that I'm not the biggest fan of back stitching and there is a lot of it in this piece. This is how she looked last time I posted, a shameful 11 months ago! I honestly did not realise how neglected she was until I looked back.

Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient Cross Stitch Work in Progress Oriental lady kimono WIP
Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient Progress

Well here she is, I finally managed to finish off the bird, a dove I'm guessing, and made some progress on the outline of her shawl and kimono. The cherry blossoms on the trees are surprisingly fiddly, as they are only half stitches and it can be difficult to anchor the thread ends. Also their placement is awkward to get right as they aren't close to the majority of the design. So I have been working on backstitching in the branches to each set of blossoms in order to make sure they are correctly placed.

Error in the branches highlighted with a black box outline

Here is where I confess all to you dear readers, I made an error in the placement of one of the branches, highlighted above. When I first discovered it I figured that I would just leave it alone and work around it but when I picked it back up again I knew that I just wouldn't be able ignore it. It's a very small fix, so I will be ripping out those offensive stitches and re-doing it correctly. I'm also pretty sure that I have done the first bit of the Raspberry coloured cording incorrectly, so that will have to be re-done.

Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient Cross Stitch Work in Progress Oriental lady kimono WIP
Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient Cross Stitch Progress Close up

Believe it or not those are not the only mistakes in this, no wonder I'm having trouble finishing it. I discovered a long time ago that I had mixed up two of the pinks when I was sorting the threads. Luckily I discovered my error before it went too far but one of the pinks in the top rose on her kimono is wrong. I had always planned to rip them out and re-stitch them correctly before I backstitched that flower but I'm just not sure if I will. If I don't then the two flowers won't match but if I do it's going to take time as I'm not entirely sure which pink it is that's wrong. Fixing it will require lots of comparing and checking with the correctly stitched flower. I would love to hear what you guys think, rip it or leave it? 

Well that's all for now. I hope you have enjoyed seeing Elegance again after her long hiatus. Hopefully I will manage lots more progress on her and she will soon become a finish instead of a UFO.

Bye for Now!

44 comments:

  1. Lovely to see this design again,she is beautiful.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Lesley. I has been oddly nice to work on her again, hopefully that feeling will continue to the finish.

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  2. You've done a good progress on Elegance. That backstitching seems to be painfull to go through, so fair play to you. And she seems to be so close to finish :)
    As per the two roses I'd leave it if I were you. If you hadn't mentioned they were different I'd never noticed, eo definitely not a big mistake that would look akward (like the misplaced branch tbh) see it as your "personal touch" ;). Hugs.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and your thoughts on the flower change. The back stitching isn't TOO bad but definitely not my favourite aspect of stitching.

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  3. Beautiful!! I wouldn't change anything, it looks stunning!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Mii. Until relatively recently I wouldn't have even considered deviating from how a project was charted and would have HAD to rip back those stitches. I'm glad I have more courage now.

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  4. I would leave it in, I never noticed and you could always consider that the light is different on the two flowers. But it is always different when you k n o w it is in there.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and for your thoughts on the flower situation. It's good to know that the error isn't really noticeable but I suppose if it was I would have picked up on it straight away.

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  5. It is indeed elegant! I'm with you on backstitching, that's why I have two screaming ladies in my UFO drawer, haha. If you havent pointed out the error we wouldnt have noticed, it's up to you if it will nag you when it's all done and framed and you can't do anything about it. Oops, did I just make you feel guilty? Haha. I have some of my share too, Lol (but with time, forgot where the mistakes are!) This is still so beautiful, you've already done a marvelous job on your Solo September👍

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and thoughts on the error. Don't worry you didn't make me feel guilty at all. I don't think it would bother me so much as long as it didn't look completely out of place, which from all the comments seem like it looks just fine.

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  6. Your work is beautiful. Please do not spend the time fixing something no one can really tell is not an exact match to the chart. Really we can't tell. She is beautiful.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Melinda and for sharing your thoughts on the flower. It's really great to hear what other stitchers think of the situation. I'm glad with how she is coming together and am going to make a special effort on getting her to completion.

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  7. She is a stunning piece, so pretty and bright colors. We can't see the mistake, I'd just let it go and improvise.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Barb. The colours are really pretty in this project, it's what drew me to it.

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  8. I do cross stitch also. Your piece is beautiful. The branch is fine looks like it just go behind the other branch, so are the flowers. Little mistakes make it yours and not just a copy. 24Tangent@gmail.com

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and visit. Always nice to see more crafters around. I like the thought of the error being a little bit of a personal touch.

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  9. I would be inclined to leave the flower on the kimono as is. It looks fine and I would be worried about damaging the surrounding stitches. Besides, each flower in nature is unique.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. You make a very good point about damaging the other stitches as the pinks are very similar there would be a possibility that I could snip the wrong ones and then have even more work to do.

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  10. I would love the flower as is as well. No one will know about the error except you, and that could be forgotten given enough time. :) Lovely work with the backstitch and the fiddly flowers.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I wouldn't have thought to look at them but the blossoms really are so fiddly!! I will be super happy when they are all completed but unfortunately there are still a good number of them to do :(

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  11. Leave the flower. We would never have known you used the wrong color if you hadn't told us. I think she looks fantastic.

    Linda

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Linda. Everyone has said to just leave the flower as is, which would suggest that it really isn't noticeable.

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  12. Gorgeous as is! Leave the flower!!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Vickie. The number of people who have said to leave it has made me giggle.

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  13. Oh how beautiful is she? Love that you pulled this out again and I look forward to seeing your progress on it. Hope the stitches come out easily!!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. I'm happy to have made some progress on this project and hopefully that will continue. You may well be seeing more of her in the near future.

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  14. Wow, you have got so far on this project. And it looks awesome.
    I'd say, just leave the flower as it is as nobody knows that the colour isn't the one from the chart.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and your thoughts on the flower. This piece is a gift for someone so it won't be hanging in my own house taunting me with its mistake :D

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  15. Beautiful work! I love the intricate detail of those flowers. And I agree with everyone else - she looks absolutely perfect just as she is!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Justine. I have found it so interesting that everyone has suggested leaving the flower as it is. The deatil in this is beautiful and only gets more so with the back stitching.

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  16. This piece is gorgeous and your stitching is really lovely.
    As for the flower - I agree with the horde of people here who would leave it. I don't think it looks wrong at all, and would never know that there's something off about it.

    I LOATHE backstitching as well and I'm struggling with it in my current piece.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and for your thhoughts on the flower. It's great to gget so many people putting forrward their opinion on it. I think one of the reasons I dislike backstitching is that when all the cross stitching is finish the piece is so close to being done but the back stitching takes so much more time than I anticipated. Then I start getting frustrated and inevitably the piece gets sidelined. I find if I stop thinking about the finish when I get to that point it is a lot more manageable.

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  17. Leave it :). It makes it unique and no two flowers look exactly the same! It looks very pretty!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment Heather and you thoughts on what I should do. Each comment I get still surprises me that everyone has said to leave it, no one has suggested a change.

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  18. I think you should leave it. It looks lovely and you don't want to mess up the surrounding stitches. Gorgeous progress! :D

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. The chance that I could actual damage the surrounding stitches would be quite high as they are all very similar in colour. Leaving it as is, is probably the best plan.

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  19. I would not have realized there were any mistakes without you pointing them out. I think changing it will be a personal choice. From my perspective, the colors are gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment and thoughts on the errors. I have decided to leave the flower as it is and fix the other smaller issues.

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  20. I didn't notice anything amiss until you wrote about it, but I am sure you see the mistakes :D At least I always do and the more I think about my own mistakes, the more I notice them :D It's like having a little angle and a devil on your shoulders, one of them telling you that it's alright and no one will notice and the other is pointing out my little cheats :D Maybe you can try looking at it from the distance and see if you like "new colors" in their place.
    A problem with fixing the colors also is, that if you are working on a kit, you can run out of thread (I often have trouble reusing the frogged threads, they become fuzzy and split). But they you can always try and contact the company for more threads, I think (I never did that).

    I think your project looks lovely and beautiful and just fine =)

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment. Dimensions are really good for sending more thread if you run out for a project. I have to get some for Majestic Peacock and they sent it on free of charge. I will always know that the mistake is there, I don't think you ever really forget the error you make in a project when you spend so much time on it. However as it doesn't seem to be a glaring mistake I will probably leave alone. I enjoy sharing my mistakes on here as I hope it encourages new people to stitching, knowing that even those of us who have been doing it for years still make errors all the time.

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  21. I hear you on the backstitching pain, but it is a necessary evil as it really makes the finished work so beautiful. I'm glad to see you have brought her back out to play in the light. She is too elegant and magnificent to leave in the dark. I would leave it as it is as it sounds like alot of work to fix for very little reward. It's not even noticeable anyway honey. xox Alicia

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    1. Thanks so much for yoru comment. The back stitching does make a huge difference to a lot of projects and this is definitely one of them, there's just so much of it. I'm currently trying to tackle a small bit everyday which is helping to progress this along. Should have another update on her soon.

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    1. Thanks so much for your commment. I do really love this piece but I will also be kinda glad when it's done. It has been a fun project to work on but as it is for my mother I would love to be able to finally give it to her.

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Would love to read any comments you would like to leave. Thanks for brightening my day :)