blzzrdqueen

UHggg!! I'm so frustrated right now! I had about half of the color on the embroidery I'm doing for my mother's wall hanging, the humming bird and morning glory's. I did one of the morning glory's in mulitple colors and it came out like CRAP! I should have stuck to solid purple instead of different shades. I can't tear it out, so I'm starting all over again.

On a side note, I've started piecing the squares that will go around the embroidery. The embroidery will be a center block on a 9 block wall hanging. The blocks are 9" square and I'll add a border to the whole thing once pieced.

How frustrating is it when something you are working on does not come out how you want it. I won't give my mother a piece that I'm not happy with. I'm determined to make this piece come out better.

I just had to Mini-rant!

adyldrop

can we see pics of the one you feel didn't come out right? I'm quite curious as to why you feel it's not good.

blzzrdqueen

Sure. There is a pic of the whole piece. I had done 2 of the flowers and a stem. I also used too much floss, 6 strands, and the new piece will only have 3 strands and be done with a smaller needle. I tried to get a close up of the one flower I HATE...but the flash kept messing it up.

Tippy

I don't think it's as bad as you feel it is, but I do understand what you're saying.. the varigated doesn't flow like a real flower... is that it? That's been part of the problem I've had with using varigated threads. they end up a bit choppy.. If you're just using multiple colors, one thing that I think makes the color flow better is to combine the colors in the middle so it's graduated.Not a "line of demarcation" when one stops. Hang in there.. that's going to be awesome!!

blzzrdqueen

I didn't use verigrated colors...I used solid colors and switched them out after a number of stitches. Instead, what I am going to do, is do each flower in a different color. One dark purple, one light purple and one in a shade of blue. I think I might also do all the inside of the circle a shade of blue as well, kind of like a sky blue. Depends on how it looks after I get the main parts done.

blzzrdqueen

This is also all being done by hand. I'm not brave enough to try machine embroidery with my machine.

Maride

I can understand how you feel. It doesn't look bad at all, but is not what you were hoping for. I have embroider with my Mom for years, and I hope you don't mind a suggestion. You can still use two shades of purple, but istead of stitching horizontal lines, she did vertical lines starting in the center of the flower, and made sure they didn't all ended on a straight line in the middle of the petal, but made some stitches shorter and some longer, so that the darker color will have also some longer and some shorter, this way it looks more natural. You can do the same thing with the bird, specially in the area of the neck, where there are color changes. I can not see the holes made by the needle, but 3 strands sound like a better choice. I am sure is going to look lovely. Your mother is very lucky. I hope my own daughter someday put half the effort into making something for me.

Maria

dvseals

It's not that bad.
My MIL made me a quilt and did birds on it, when she was
doing the different shades as all birds wings have she'd
mix 2-4 diff colors of thread 1 strand of each and sew them
that way to get a varigated look.
And Marie is right maybe going vertical instead of horizontal will make it blend better for you as well. GL

adyldrop

Ahh I can now see what you mean. Maybe you need a different filler stitch to break up the 3 colors more realistically. I'd probably pick a shaded satin stitch or a long and short satin stitch
http://www.craftandfabriclinks.com/s..._stitches.html for the long and short
Shaded satin is pretty much the same but using your multiple shades

blzzrdqueen

Something else I'm doing different is instead of doing the entire outline in a black floss back stitch, is I traced the whole thing with a black fons and porter perminent quilt pen. Makes the lines thicker and is soooo much quicker.