Jacobean Buds and Beads

It's been another rough week at work. That combined with the pandemic and the election meant that after work, I had very little energy for embroidery (or anything else) and mostly just lay in exhaustion on my chaise while my little maltipoo, Beau, kissed me in a consoling sort of way. But I did find a little time for embroidery here and there. 

A week or so ago, I had started the following branch in my Jacobean piece:

I chain stitched this section in medium blue and then whipped it both ways in lighter blue. I still can't decide if I like it. But I don't have any better ideas, so for now it stays. And I don't hate it, so it may be okay in the end.

But it was time to start the flowers for this branch. I had always planned to satin stitch the bottom half and then do bullion knots for the little spokes coming out of the top. My first effort was a dismal failure (it's been a while since I've done bullion knots), but I forgot to take a picture. The second effort came out okay, though:

I opted to use the medium and light shades of peach again, as I thought this section needed a slightly warmer tone since there are so many cool blues around it. My bullion knots aren't quite perfect, but I was disinclined to do them a third time in the probably vain hope that they would be any better. So I moved on and did the other two flowers the same way:

On one of the flowers, I reversed the two shades of peach for a bit of variety. I can't decide if that was the right decision or not. But I'm going to leave it for now and see how it looks once I get that big flower to the right done. If it doesn't look right at that point, I can always redo it like the other two.

But I felt like I needed to use some more beads here. This time, I decided to use the medium peach thread to sew them down instead of the pale peach thread. I was hoping it would make the beads look a little more peach than pink:

I think this was reasonably successful, and they look like they match the flowers pretty well. I really like the placement of the beads on the pale peach flower. The bead placement on the other two was a bit less successful, but it's okay. I may go back at some point and try to adjust them if it really bothers me.

Anyway, here's the whole piece and everything I've completed so far:

I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Overall, I love the color scheme. I think it has just the right blend of warm and cool colors. And the patterns are so fun and interesting. Not too shabby for just figuring it out as I go. I'd say it's about halfway done at this point.

But I probably am going to take a little break from it because Mary Alice found the right shade of green flat silk thread that I need to continue my Japanese embroidery piece! Huzzah! Turns out the thread she originally sent me was the old one, and I had the new one in my kit, so Midori was able to send her the right color. My relief was palpable. I so want to finish that piece and do it right. I'm hoping all the stress at work and in the world will calm the hell down soon, if only for a little while, so I can work up the energy and motivation to do those last two maple leaves. Perhaps the stars will align tomorrow!