Wisteria

If you recall from an earlier post, I recently got a new Japanese embroidery frame. I told you I needed it, and now I'll tell you why. 😊

I have been told, rather ominously, that the Hiogi piece (my phase 3) can take two years to complete. Two years! And in fact, I have a JE friend who's been working on it for 2 1/2 years and isn't done yet. Admittedly, though, she has also done a ton of side projects during that time, including completing her phase 4 piece, which I suspect accounts greatly for the extended time period. 

I tend to do only one or two side projects while I'm working on my JE pieces, and even then, I work on them infrequently. Most of my stitching time is devoted to JE, and I often work on it four or five days a week for a few hours each day. Still, Mary Alice thinks Hiogi will probably take me at least a year because it involves so many complicated techniques.

Given that, I have an inkling that I may, at times, need a bit of a break from Hiogi. But I really love JE, so I decided to order a second JE piece to work on when I need some variety. For this project, I chose a much simpler practice piece called Wisteria:

I love wisteria flowers in general, but these lovely trailing bunches of dainty wisteria on the delicate trellis are just so pretty. 

Here's a picture of this piece stitched up (I don't know who stitched it or photographed it, but if it was you, let me know so I can credit you!):

Now, obviously, I won't be doing this color scheme (because orange), but it is simply a gorgeous, graceful design and looks lovely stitched up (even on orange).

For my own piece, I had the design put on a white Nishijin fabric and selected soft browns for the trellis, sage greens for the leaves (though I may also add a slightly darker green in some places as I really like that touch on the above piece), and colors ranging from silvery lavender to deep purple for the wisteria flowers themselves:

I think it's going to be really elegant and pretty. And I should be able to finish this in much less than a year — in case I need to feel I've accomplished something while Hiogi inevitably drags on. 😂

And now you know why I needed that stunning, custom, highly figured maple JE frame. 😉