Crewel & Colour

I have made a good bit of progress on this (still to be named ?) piece of crewel work.

After finishing the main stem, I moved on to the two large leaves on either side. For these, I wanted the the primary colour to be the run of grays. 

The lobes on the lower half are stitched in blanket stitch, with a fine line of a darker shade along the inside to define the edge. I had slightly changed the inner edge of the lobes and in the picture above, you can see a few little dots where the original design lines were. It didn't really matter though, since I wanted to fill the shapes with seed stitch, which neatly cover any dots. 

The grays I am using are Appletons from the run of 961 - They are a warm grey and I had originally thought, I would let the grays run into a very pale grey-blue at the tip. I think I tried every single super light blue-grey in Appletons run of colours - Nothing looked right. At this stage I also felt the colours for the seed stitch was looking too cool...

Before 'reverse stitching' anything, I jumped across to the second leaf to try an alternative. I started with the grays that I knew were working and, while still pondering the colour for the remaining section at the top, filled the lobes with seed stitch using a slightly warmer palette of yellow than before. This is much better. 

While working on the yellows, I had found yet another pale shade of warm grey - well more putty-grey in my stash and thought it was worth a try...

... it worked a treat. The colour is so close the one before it and when the yarns are laying on my table it is almost impossible to tell them apart. Once stitched, the grading is just fell into place. With that finally sorted, I could finish the leaf. 

As you can see, I have quite a few shades in this piece. The light blue is most certainly going and of the other colours, the stronger shades will only be used very, very sparingly to add definition and contrast.

I have unpicked and almost restitched what I needed to on the first leaf, so this is where I am at.  

I am thinking, I will redo the small daisy-type flowers in a different colour but other than that, I feel this is now on track to where I want it. I am not sure how much time I will have to stitch in the coming week. I am in the middle of reworking the website so that I can include the shop. The shop on Etsy has been great, but is becoming rather expensive for me to run as their fees have slowly been creeping up over the years and I think it is time...

Now I really do need to think of a name for it... you have all been really helpful before - any suggestions?

I hope you all have a lovely week, stay safe and keep stitching.

Hugs,

Anna X