The Best Laid Plans

One of the elements of my Phase III piece, Venerable Friends, is the gold leaf cloud. The foundation is worked in a green silk twisted with #1 gold. I liked the effect so much that I always intended to use it on my Flutterbys. As soon as I saw the pale blue, I thought that it would look beautiful twisted with silver and I thought that the hind wings of my Blue Eyed Boy was the ideal place for it. After only a few stitches I had decided two things.

1) I think the blue and silver combination is stunning.

2) The twisting silk and metallic thread is too baulky here.

I decided to stitch a larger area and look again the next day before ruling it out. When I looked again in the morning, I was certain, this effect is too heavy and ridged looking next to the delicate fore wings. Time for plan B, but I didn't actually have a plan B.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

I am certain that the pale blue is right, so I stitched a vertical foundation in a single strand of flat silk. Ever reluctant to unpick, I could not bring myself to remove the left wing before stitching the right one, but now that I have done that it is all the more obvious that my original plan was not a good one.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

My original plan was that the four butterflies that represent my brothers and myself would each include a colour from the Mother and Father butterflies. The dark grey I used for this body will be one of the Father colours. The Mother butterfly will be pink and silver (and maybe white). The obvious colour to combine with blue, I think, is silver. All I have to do now is decide how!

Happy Stitching