A Really Colorful Gerbera!

Here's the finished version of the gerbera daisy canvas I made from my sister's photo:


It's very..... BRIGHT, isn't it?
But then, the flowers themselves aren't exactly subtle in their colors....so this canvas represents that zingy brightness in it's colors and patterns.

My long satin stitches are a bit ragged, I know....but I was in a hurry to get it done and didn't lay them as neatly as I could have....no matter, I was eager to see how it LOOKED! So I rushed thru it.....and maybe using the thicker Floche thread wasn't the best choice after all...maybe stranded floss or silk would have given a smoother finish. However, I do like the contrast between the dark orange basketweave-stitched petals and the satin-stitched petals; that's something I'll keep in mind for other projects. But you know, that's the fun of playing around with smaller canvases. I learned a few things that I will certainly apply to other canvases in the future.

I'm particularly pleased with the border. The padded green borders are complimented by the variegated yellow & gold section, which I created with three of the yellow threads, but merged the colors in a simple skip-over where the colors met...


And I wanted to try making the fuzzy little leaves with random lazy daisy stitches, but I inserted an additional straight stitch in the middle, in a lighter green. I wanted to see if it would look like the leaves...It sort of does, but maybe more shading of colors would have made it look more realistic.

Anyway, I really like the pink background stitch....it's slightly jazzy, but also a fast and easy stitch that lets the pink canvas show thru, but still finishes off the background effectly. (After I stitched it, I realized I should have tried to make rounder polka dots in the background....wouldn't that look neat, too? Oh well, I can try that sometime on another canvas!)

Now that I have gotten this bright gerbera daisy canvas out of my system, I can go back to stitching my other (quieter) canvases. . .