Sterling Silver

by The Silver Lining

Marc Istaad designs the most realistic flowers I've ever seen. I'm stitching this one in my grandmother's memory. The Sterling Silver rose was her favorite, and the pride of her garden. I'm stitching this on 28-count water lily linen, over 1.

May 10, 2003. I started this at the end of a week's rotation, filling up a spot vacated by a recently completed piece, so there isn't much progress yet.

May 31, 2003. I have a full week into this now, and it's almost starting to look like part of a flower!

June 17, 2003. As much as I love the fabric I'm stitching on, I also dislike it. It is very fragile fabric, and it wants to tear when I pull it in the hoop. Drat! So, I've put this aside after only another couple of days progress on it, in hopes that I'll soon be able to purchase a small scroll frame to stitch it on, so that I can save the fabric. Drat and blast!

January 3, 2004. It took me forever to decide to do it, and then to restart, but I'm glad I did. Here's the first week on new fabby. I'm now stitching on 28-count waterlily Jobelan, over 1. And I did a lot in just a week. The new fabby is making a ton of difference, all for the better. Plus, I'm now stitching it on a frame, and I love this little frame. Woohoo! P.S. The color is rather off, but I guess that's what I get for taking a picture of something on light green fabric in incandescent light. LOL

January 11, 2004. Okay. So far I am still really glad that I bit the bullet and restarted. This fabric is a dream to stitch on, and I'm making good progress. Yea! And when I got to that pesky area with the color blend, this time I used one strand of each color on the needle, and just did a half cross, and I am very happy with the result. It's that really dark area near the middle right of the blossom.

April 4, 2004. I got a lot of the lower edge of this flower done this week. Feels like I made a lot of progress again this time. Yippee! Thought it would be interesting to show how big it is in relation to a quarter. I'm also considering not outlining this one. I love to outline, so that's not it... It just looks *so* pretty this way, and because of the glorious shading you can really see the details of the flower. But, if I do outline it, the details will be crisper. Jury's out.

June 21, 2004. We've started a Silver Lining SAL over at Threads, so I'm stitching up a storm. And yes, I finally decided... definitely doing the outlining, and I'm glad. As usual, outlining is making the details pop!

July 5, 2004. I worked on this an extra week, and got the first whole rose and both rosebuds done. Wow, I put the finishing touches on that rose, and it went from a being a purple blob to being an incredible purple rose. How does Marc do that? Stunning. I'm off to stitch on another project now, and am feeling quite pleased with the state of this one. One rose and two buds down... I put the quarter on the fabby so you can see how big it really is.

August 15, 2004. I have a good start on the largest flower.

October 11, 2004. I participated in a rose SAL over on the Silver Lining board this weekend. I got a little bit of outlining done inside the rose near the center edge, some stitching next to that, and that dark purple blip that's off to the right.

October 17, 2004. I got a lot more of that large rose done. Kind of suprising the progress I made. Didn't feel like that much when I was stitching it.

February 27, 2005. I concentrated on this one for a few weeks, and got a lot done, nearly the entire larger flower. From across the room it looks quite real. Not much of the purple left now, so I started on one of the larger leaves so that next time I pick it up I can go back and forth between the two colors. At least for a while. I put the quarter there again, so you can see what the true size of this is.

June 20, 2005. No wonder it seems like forever since I've worked on this. It has! Between finishing up a couple large projects, and starting new ones, this is the first chance I've had to work on this gorgeous design since February. I'm still stitching away at it, but wanted to add this update so I could see how much I've gotten done so far. The first leaf is almost completely done, just a little outlining left to do, and I've gone back to the left edge of the flower and have started filling in there.

July 1, 2005. I have that lower large petal *almost* completely done now, and most of the petal to the left of it is done as well. Plus a little more outlining. Woohoo! I was thinking about turning this one in for the Santa project on Sunday, but decided that there's more that I want to get done before rotating, hence today's update.

July 11, 2005. Except for a little outlining where the rose touches a leaf that hasn't yet been stitched, the second rose is complete. I discovered when I was nearly done with the smaller of the two leaves that I'd very consistently used the wrong green for one of the symbols. Egads. Well, I'm just not going to even try to rip out those tiny stitches, so I decided that I like it that way. Two more large leaves, the rosehip, two stems, and a couple very small leaves to go. After comparing it with the pattern this evening, I can say with confidence that I'm way more than half done.

September 6, 2005. I finished up the last three purple rose stitches, and have made good progress on that huge leaf down below. I got bored at one point and ventured out toward the left a little. That's the stem that will hold the rose hip. I also ventured down at one point, to begin the first of several long stems that reach toward the bottom of the design. At the top of the photo you can see the back of one of the roses where it is scrolled up onto the frame.

September 12, 2005. I didn't get anywhere near as much done on this last week as I'd hoped, but I did manage to finally finish the large leaf. There's a tiny nub of another stem that'll reach toward the bottom of the picture. Both completely stitched leaves are now outlined, as well. I've now moved on to the third leaf of the trio, and you can see a tiny bit of progress there.

October 11, 2005. I've gotten a lot done since the last update. I finished the leaf trilogy on the right, as well as the rosehip on the left. All are outlined, too. All that are left are some stems and one leaf. Next time I pick this up I will finish it. I rotated on to the Santa stocking for DH last night (man, those stitches seem huge after stitching this one for so long), but before I go back to Lilac Basket, I may just have to come back to this rose and finish it up.

February 9, 2006. No, I really haven't worked on this since early October. Egads. No wonder it seems like such a long time. A little progress has been made, though. I got the top of the two stems done, and have started on one of the last leaf bits. Yes, the photo's a trifle blurry. Sorry about that.

February 15, 2006. I've been making good progress on Sterling Silver in spite of the fact that I haven't been working on it daily. I'm getting close enough to being done that I can almost taste it. If I hurry, I might even be able to finish this before the project is three years old!

February 21, 2006. I'm really getting close to having this flower done now. I'd be a little closer, but I had to frog part of the right stem. I think I'm going to have to frog a little bit of the left one as well. We'll see, but I'm pretty sure there's a mistake in the dark green, and I even think I know where it is. I don't think I'll have to rip out too many stitches, though. Thank goodness. I just hate ripping out those tiny, over-1 stitches. It's hard enough seeing them well enough to put them in!