Racing towards the finish

Usually I'm pretty relaxed about getting a project finished. I love every stitch and am sorry to be done with each piece. I 'll be sorry to be finished with the Royal Persian Blossom project, too...but I also can't wait to see it completed!I've been working on the last components, all of which are quite large shapes and all of which are at the top. The feeling of the piece has changed so much with each area I finish.I've begun the last pair of shapes right at the top of the blossom, one on the right and one on the left. There's quite a bit of gold in the remaining areas to stitch. Whenever I stand up to look at my work from a distance, the amount of light the gold thread adds to the piece surprises me.Here's the piece before I added the trellis work. It all looks very blue and cool in overall tone. To my eye the gray/brown areas stand out more than they do in later photos.After I added the trellis the blues warmed up as did the gray/brown colors. The trellis is also a much less dense area of stitching. A lot of this piece is worked in long and short shading and those areas are 'heavy' in comparison to the three areas of laid and couched work. I think the balance between the densely stitched areas and the more open areas is wonderful and perfectly balanced.Now that I've added the gold threads to the shape on the left, the whole piece looks more alive. I can just imagine how it will look when there is gold stitching on both sides and the balloon shapes at the very top are also stitched in shades of gold. I think it will look positively sunny!The Marriage Pillowe is also just about finished and then all that's left to work on is Trevelyon's Cap. Time to start planning a new project!On a completely different note, you may have noticed a small photo of the Silk Angle on the right side of the page. If you click on it, you will be taken to the brand new blog of two classes of future embroiderers. We've only had one lesson with the younger group of students so far (classes 3/4, students who are 8 and 9 years old). I've gotten loads of great ideas and advice from Mary Corbet's Needle 'N Thread, including the idea for our very first little project - craft foam thread cards.We'll only post once a week and it will be the students writing from now on. We were just too busy during the first class to have any time for them to write! Stop by and see what we're up to!