A Whiter White

It's snowdrop flower time on Melbury Hill's Galanthus Collector. The Heathway crewel white isn't white enough for a good contrast with the linen twill ground fabric. That means all the embroidery on the bud has to come out with the help of a laying tool and scissors.

I don't enjoy removing embroidery. It's painful! However, sometimes needs must, especially when you are experimenting.

I'm replacing the Heathway white with Bella Lusso white. In addition to being a brighter white, the Bella Lusso is also a finer thread, perhaps more so than might be indicated in the photo below. (Heathway is on the left, Bella on the right.)

After re-doing the bud, I filled the white petals of the central flower with long and short stitch. Like Heathway, Bella Lusso is a lovely thread to stitch with.

Next, some grey contour lines were added to the petals:

I was happier with the brighter white, but the petals looked a bit flat. They needed a little more shading or definition or something along their edges where white and grey meet. I tried out some different greys to see how they would look alongside the white. One was too dark (left side of centre petal), one was too light (right side of centre petal), and one was just right (along edge of right petal). It's a Bella Lusso which is nice because being a finer thread means the added definition will be a little more subtle (and easier to add in).

Below, the Bella grey has been added along the sides of the central petal and a bit of shadow has been added under edges of the two side petals.

I may add a little more grey later, but for now it's good enough.

I'm enjoying working on and watching this piece develop. As I don't really have a plan for what I'm doing, I can't wait to see what happens next!