Out of Time

The deadline for submissions to the Summer of Love challenge was Tuesday. I stitched and stitched and stitched, but was unable to finish in time to meet the deadline.

I'm extremely disappointed...and exhausted. I think I stitched for 8 hours on more than one day over the past extended weekend. (I stitched everyday from Friday through Tuesday.) The piece is nearly finished, but not done. I am frustrated, but here are some colourful pictures which make me feel better.

The pink flower is one of four big flowers on the design. The photo's a bit deceptive. This is the largest of the big flowers and took many hours to stitch.

 

Here are the previously-seen grey daisies joined by some colourful friends.

One of the things that made progress take so long was that I am mostly stitching on shapes rather than lines. I won't do that again. There simply isn't enough contrast between the lighter colours of the printed pattern and the fabric so it takes forever to embroider. (Even the darker shapes are difficult to stitch.) In the photo below the edges on the grey daisy shape seem like they might not be too difficult to see, but no matter how much light or magnification I use the edges manage to disappear as I'm stitching. They don't literally disappear, it just seems that way.

Lines are better!

This is the smallest of the big flowers. There are 5 rows of shading on this motif. It took quite a while to stitch.

The final big flower.

I'm taking a break from this project. I'm going to work on something less-demanding and, at this point, more pleasurable. I'll finish the challenge piece fairly soon because, if for no other reason, it's taking up a lot of my work table...but not this weekend.

One advantage to not having to work towards a deadline is that I can finally think about what I'm doing. Although the colour plan is somewhat worked out, not all of it was pre-planned. At times I've felt like I've been throwing colour at it to see what happens. Slowing down will be good!