A Bluestocking Knits

"Virtue Outshines the Stars"

The "Virtue Outshines the Stars" sampler by Darlene O'Steen, one of my must-do pieces -- about six months of fairly steady stitching.  I confess that I was getting a bit weary of it towards the end, but I'm very happy with the result!  I used the original DMC colors -- on 32-count linen from xJudesign in "Milk Chocolate" -- but made a few tweaks here and there, re-spacing the alphabets slightly, centering the elements that were (curiously) not so, and as I mentioned previously, changing out the uppermost flower in the vases in the bottom band -- though on the whole, obviously, a superb design, I think one of O'Steen's best.

Lots of queen stitch! -- here in the flowers in the border and horizontally as a small dividing band, an unusual use for it but effective.

The new-to-this-piece larger flower is from O'Steen's "Tudor Rose Sampler" in her The Proper Stitch book, here with the arrowhead stitch center in 3045, the outline in 356, the double-backstitch "tips" in 356 + 358, and the satin stitch in 758.  I'm not entirely pleased with my choices, but I do like the proportions much better now --

One of my favorite details is the birds in the upper corners! --

Revisions, Decisions

Nearly there!

I have made a few revisions to my "Virtue" as I went along, perhaps the most obvious being the top flower in the vases at the right and left sides near the bottom, which the more I looked at, the more I thought seemed a bit stingy, almost cowering, even.  O'Steen's original is made of queen stitches, and attempts at simply enlarging it with additional queen stitches around the edges proved pretty much impossible, and so I searched around and found a different flower of the size I wanted, in the "Tudor Rose" sampler in her The Proper Stitch book -- it seemed only fair to use one of "her" flowers, of course!  I'm not entirely delighted with it in this sampler, though, and so now I'm pondering my options.

The new flower on the left, the first one I did, is too vivid, as it were, too eye-catching.  Even though the red in the outline is the same red used in the large flower band above it, it stands out too much in contrast with the medium and light pinks ("light" and "lighter," technically!), and as much as I love satin stitch, it seems just a bit too shiny here.  This is 355+356 Terra Cotta Dark and Terra Cotta Medium blended for the outline, 754+758 Peach Light and Terra Cotta Very Light for the double-backstitch, and 758 for the satin stitch --

I toned down the red outline a bit for the second one, on the right, which I think is better, with 356 alone for the outline, and 758 for the two fills.  I suspected that the different reflective properties of the double-backstitch and the satin stitch would make the color look just different enough, as it were, but now I think it does need just a little bit more contrast.

I guess that because the original flower "fades" as it goes outwards from the center, I had pictured the revision that way in my mind, but now I wonder if a slightly darker color for the double-backstitch at the tips of the petals might work ....