Ho Boy :(

While I was sailing away on the blue medallion of Opus Magnusson, horror of horrors, the stitches aren't where they're supposed to be!  Ho Boy!  Why do I have too many spaces open on this thing?  And then realization - oh, MY GOD, I've stitched this thing wrong.  The way I'm  working this whole chart is to stitch the black in a section first, then fill in with color(s).  And when you take the black out of the linen, it leaves not exactly a stain, but a bit of a shadow of where it was.  No problem if you're stitching over it, but what happens if you're not?  Your piece ends up with permanent 5 o'clock shadow, that's what.   What to do, what to do!?

Well, like a true off-roader, I decided to make my own path (so to speak).  I thought about it a whole day.  When I came back the next evening, I'd decided that I was not going to pull out the black that I'd already stitched - I'd have to make the best of it.  That also meant that I could not do the medallion as charted.  I'd have to come up with a replacement.  I sat that evening and studied the chart.  I realized that I don't particularly like all the medallions - sounds so much like me, doesn't it?  So, if I did one of my own to cover my mistake and then eliminated some and duplicated others, then I'd be OK.  Using the stitching I'd already done, I created a new medallion.  In this close-up photo you can see where I overstitched with Straw Bonnet (a close match to my linen color) to cover some of the black stitches that had to go.  There is a height difference, but I think looking at the sampler as a whole, you won't notice them.  I have also decided to change the medallion colors.

If you go to the designer's webpage you can see the original design and compare it to what I did.  The simple fact of the matter is that while the DMC color choices were OK for this chart, I don't like all the equivalents that were chosen to replace them in the Gentle Art colors.  Namely Cider Mill Brown that is used for the tiger, etc. and Straw Bonnet that was used for the horse, etc.  The Cider Mill Brown doesn't have a shred of orange or copper and the Straw Bonnet is missing the yellow.  In this picture I've blurred the DMC color numbers so I'm not giving away the designer's information, but you can see the color comparisons and the colors I've added.

Since I'm not re-stitching that tiger, the next best thing is to jazz up the rest of the color scheme.  That's why I added the green (GA Tiger Lily) and now I've added a yellow (GA Butternut Squash).  I'm also going to use more of the red (Buckeye Scarlet) throughout.  And that's it.  I'm not going to make anymore changes.   Oh, forgot to mention I changed the arrows.  I think these look a bit more realistic.  I am so bad!  Think my blue medallion works with the others?  Here's my progress so far:

I keep telling myself that this sampler is for a man and while my son is sensitive to design, he is still a man.  He was showing me his wall quilts that I made him; the ones that hang in "his room".  I was really at a loss as to why they hang in "his room" and not just any room in the house.  To be honest, I made them a long time ago and had forgotten exactly what quilts they were.  He brought them to the computer and showed me.  Instantly I remembered AND knew why they were all in his room.  One was fishing themed and the other woodsy/camping/hunting.  Uh Huh.  So he's really not going to care about the colors in this sampler that much - and - good news - it'll fit right in with the rest of the decor!

I'll pick up AotH next - the August block!  Hope you enjoyed!