An angelic finish

The model for Judy Harper's July guardian angel is finished, and what a fun project it was! One of the things which made it particularly appealing to me was its use of my favorite colors: blue, green and hot pink.

Heading into the home stretch, I gave the little angel a bolero jacket using Vineyard Silk Classic "Celestial"--appropriate for an angel, don't you think? The jacket was trimmed in a gobelin stitch at the front edges and cuffs, and filled in with a framed mosaic stitch. I chose this shade of blue. which matches the darkest blue of the water, to tie the top and bottom of the canvas together.

Last of all, the water lilies themselves! I chose four values of DMC floss--from darkest to lightest, #335, 899, 776 and 818--to shade the petals. I began with the darkest value in the center petals, stitching over the stamens, which I added later on top of the stitching using three plies of DMC floss #743. Using either satin or long stitches, I worked outward with the lighter values of pink floss. The veins of the lightest petals were worked with two plies of the darkest pink on top of the previously-stitched areas.

Hopefully I've come close to achieving the look of Monet's garden at Giverny for this little angel, who will now wing her way back to Judy for finishing.