I mentioned last week that I like to rotate the types of embroidery projects I work on, to give myself a little variety, moving from more intense to less intense projects and visa-versa.

This is all part of my time-and-enthusiasm-levels Management Program, and it works!

Right now, I’m in a less-intense project phase. After finishing a very quick little weedy thing, I set up a new project that I’ve been eager to get going on for a while.

I think of it as a leafy sampler of sorts.

Right off the bat, I changed my mind on some key decisions that come along with any embroidery project, and although I made decent progress over the weekend, I’m going to stop where I am and start this project over. I’ll tell you why.

When I designed this project, my thought was that it would be irregular and a little random. I didn’t want a lot of structured regularity in the stitching.

But for me, that’s not how I roll! My “irregular” leaf above comes up looking…sure, irregular in spacing, but it’s a very regularized irregularity.

So that approach just isn’t going to work. Or at least, not the way I was approaching it. Maybe I was thinking about it too hard?

Trying to be random – and failing – I found myself coming back to the fishbone stitch repeatedly.

At this point, I think I had six leaves stitched in the same area of the tree. Three of them were in fishbone stitch.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the groupings were a bit off.

I started at the very base of this tree design I’m working on, with the intention of working all the leaves in that small section.

If you’re going for a seemingly random approach but you want a good balance on a project like this, this isn’t the way to do it.

The way to do it is to scatter your interpretations of all the elements across the piece and to work with the full piece in mind, rather than in small sectors.

I quickly discovered that the natural colored ground fabric has to go.

I love this linen – it’s Strathaven natural – but for photography purposes, I have a hard time with it.

When it comes to photographing something step-by-step, nothing beats a white ground fabric. You just get more clarity. It’s also easier to adjust camera settings quickly. And being able to adjust the camera quickly leads to more stitching time.

I tried to work within a set range of greens, from dark to bright, but it isn’t giving me as much variety as I would like. So I need to reconsider my color range.

I’ll most likely set up a new version of this project today, on a white ground fabric.

I’ll pull out both drawers of greens from my stranded cotton thread cabinet. And I’ll pull some over-dyed threads, too, from different thread sources to mix in.

I might even pull some other types of threads besides stranded cotton, and go for more texture. We shall see! This latter point can be problematic when planning a piece for others to stitch, because it’s more difficult to assemble the fibers if they’re coming from all over the place.

It was a good experiment while it lasted, and it carried me through the weekend with lots of fun little bits to pick up and work on when I had some quiet time.

I learned several things, I mulled over solutions, and I’m ready to start over.

Sometimes, that just the way it goes.

It’s never a bad thing to have to start over, if your reasons for doing so are sound.

Over to You!

Any questions, comments, suggestions? Feel free to have your say below!

Looking for Embroidery Projects for Spring Stitching?

If you’re hankering for some spring stitching projects, why not check out some of my e-books that feature colorful embroidery, perfect for spring?

They’re suitable for beginners and beyond, full of step-by-step photo instructions, and they make for fun little projects that work up quickly!

My three recommendations for Spring stitching: Stitch Sampler Alphabet; Lavender Honey & Other Little Things; and Will Ewe Bee Mine?

If you haven’t checked out any of my e-books available on Needle ‘n Thread, you’ll find them all listed here!