When things don’t go as planned

I have a confession to make. I very seldom make changes to designs while stitching. I design everything with my software, then pull threads, then begin stitching. I’ll occasionally add threads in, take threads away, or change a stitch or two, but seldom do I make wholesale changes.

And that leads me to my dilemma. I’m working on a project (sorry, can’t show it yet), and one area has me completely stumped. I’ve added in a lot of threads, changed some, decided on a stitch then changed it again. It’s been difficult to get this one little area completed!

I started stitching it at a retreat, almost a month ago now. I stitched a bit, then ripped it out because I thought a different thread/stitch/combination would be better. I pulled more threads, “auditioned” them by laying them against the canvas, discarded some, added some more. I selected a different stitch – nope, still not happy. And tried another one, still disappointed.

So, I thought I had finally found the right combination of stitch and thread, and finished the area last night. But overnight, I became dissatisfied with that as well. I don’t think there’s enough differentiation between the stitch/thread for this area between two other areas.

Tonight, I’ll be ripping everything out again. Perhaps having tried several things and discarded them, I can finally begin to make progress. Now that I know what won’t work, maybe I can find the magic combination to get it right. It’s frustrating when you have a certain look in mind, but can’t quite get it onto the canvas.

Have you ever been bound up by a stitching dilemma? Lost your mojo? Not happy with a project? Then you know exactly what I’m going through. Sigh – maybe I’ll succeed this time!