Beautiful colors

The colors in the Marriage Pillowe are so beautiful. I've finished almost 1/3 of the whole design and as I work, the combination of colors becomes more and more stunning.After I finished the laid work and the long and short shading of the first large flower, it was time to move on to the leaves that are scattered throughout the design. Now leaves are usually green in my book. Maybe gold/yellow or rust/orange but not blue/blue green. How could I have been so silly? Look at the colors in the flower with leaves and a tiny part of the stem. Isn't it gorgeous?!All of the leaves are worked in closed fly stitch, one of my personal favorites for leaves. I just love the texture of closed fly stitch. There are leaves of green, gold and blue mixed with berries in shades of raspberry red and a perfect golden acorn.Without it's hat, the acorn looks a little like the head of a small, sweet bird.The acorn is done in satin stitch, padded satin and French knots. The French knots are like the ones I did for my RSN piece on the acorn and I am so pleased that I chose what the professional does for the acorn tops! I first learned how to do French knots at the class I took with Phillipa Turnbull last fall in Burford at Burford Needlecraft. Her trick of putting the tip of the needle into the fabric, tightening the knot and then pulling the needle through makes French knots foolproof. Really!When the dark green leaf is added next to the acorn, the colors just pop!It was when I started adding the raspberry red of the berries that the color combinations really struck me. The green is so fresh looking. When the kit arrived and I saw how many different colors of thread there were, I thought "Whew! That's a lot of colors!" Now that I'm in the middle of stitching it, I can see that every single color is necessary and perfect.In the past I tended to think that old pieces of crewelwork were more subdued colors. I now know that they were not like this at all and that what we see today is often faded and dulled by time.  Look at that blue and green leaf next to the rich red berry!These colors are as fresh as they would have been before time stole their vibrancy! Sometimes I wish I could travel through time, go back and see what the historic pieces looked like before they faded. This is as close as I'm likely to get and, you know what? I'm happy with that!