Laura J. Perin Lilac Collage

I had such a hard time putting this one down that I barely spent time with anything else.  I didn't want to happen what happened with Pieces of 8: I totally lost my momentum for progress on Po8 when I put it down for the challenge pieces. 

 I did some work for the next Wipocalypse report (a previous post) and hope to do some more.  I did very little on Blackbird Christmas which I think I forgot to report last month.  I did some time consuming work on the Egyptian Mandala - which can also be applied to Wipocalypse, I suppose.

But returning to the Lilac!  I can't believe it is finished.

There were  several discrepancies between the chart and the cover photo.  You have to look at both then decide which way you will go.  The good thing about projects like this is that there is a lot of fudge space.  I did clip out some areas, including the lilacs for assorted issues.  The chart came with a packet of beads which I did not put on the piece. 

I changed out the entire lilac area to restranded floss instead of all perle.  The threads fit together better.  I also added some more leafage to balance it out more in its rectangle  

I also tried to put the swiss dotted 504 in the back of the lilac but it looked too busy and I hated the ghost threads - which I could have masked in framing but I did not like the green measles look.  I tried some light patterning with a single floss thread.  I finally decided the lilacs can sit by themselves.  I added my initials and the year, lightly at the base of the lilacs.

What made this project work from the beginning is that I decided that as long as stray threads did not show through to the front that I didn't care what the back looked like.  This was the biggest reason I could work the NP on the lilacs.  I refused to put this project down for any other stitching until I slogged through those lilacs.  I knew if I ever put them down for long they would never get finished and the project would never be finished.  

Only after the lilacs were done did I let myself work on the really fun layered blocks.

So I finished Lilacs.  I started in on Lahaina Breezes as a reward.  This one should go even faster because it looks like larger scale abstract stitching even though it measures 10 by 10 to Lilac's 9 1/4 by 9 1/8.   I have only just begun it and I already encountered a discrepancy between chart and photo.

   It was fun working on this last night but I will put it down to get some progress going on the challenge pieces.