Well, that was interesting. The flower didn’t fall apart when I removed the WSS, so I suppose it was a technical success. However, I really don’t like the way it looks. (That’s not a great photo, by the way. The light purple in the back three petals is actually a slightly darker shade of blue.)

I was surprised that the ends of the petals curled up by themselves, which gives the flower some nice dimension. I’m not sure if that’s because the background wasn’t heavy enough to support the stitches or because I used a radial stitch instead of complex fill. Maybe it was both.

I used radial stitch because I wanted to add some texture to the petals, but I’m not crazy about the final effect. I also had Generations add a border to each petal (Stitch Properties on the Basic Tab, check Use Border) instead of creating a separate border the way I usually do.

I think a large part of the problem is that I used six petals. The eye tends to group them in sets of three, which is not the effect I wanted. This is made worse by my choice to do the back petals in a darker color, but I suspect it would happen regardless. It’s too easy to see the back petals as a large triangle, even in the small white flower.

The hanging loop adds to the problem.

So, how do I fix this?

1. Make the two layers separate, which would either require attaching them by hand or making the top layer and letting it dry, then making the back layer and attaching the top when the center is stitched.
2. Reshape the back layer so it doesn’t look so triangular.
3. Round the tips of the petals (which won’t be accurate for the flower I was trying to make)
4. Instead of having three behind and three in front, have them spiral.
5. Change to five petals (also not accurate)
6. Lose the radial stitch.
7. Move the hanging loop so the flower doesn’t hang straight up and down.

Here’s the flower with spiral petals and the hanging loop moved. I don’t see the triangles as much, but I still think it would be better with only five petals.

Stay tuned for more!

Here’s the last capital letter of the Midnight Constellations Font. I have the numbers for you, as well as some individual stars to scatter. I haven’t decided whether to do the lower case letters or move on to something else.

You are welcome to use these files to make objects for personal use or for sale. You may not resell or distribute the embroidery files. Be sure to test first.

Midnight Constellations Z 3″

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Categories: Earrings, Freestanding Lace, Midnight Constellations

Tags: Digitizing, embroidery, Font, Free embroidery file, Freestanding Lace, Generations software, Midnight Constellations, Midnight Constellations Z