Update...

A quick update on my progress.... Firstly I changed fabric from the piece I was going to use - this fabric holds the stitches better plus it has a tiny self slub which makes the piece more 'rustic'. I bought a metre of it from the local op-shop ages ago - I think it may have started its life as dress fabric as it is a polyester mix but over time I have used pieces of it for other stitching and it has worked well... There is a definite weft and warp thread so I have guidelines to work with...

This has been harder to do than I thought - you know how you see the finished piece in your mind's eye- never the steps to get there - yes, I'm sure that's what a visual journal is for!!! I knew what I wanted - and now as I write this I am even more sure - what I don't want is a still life of pears in thread... At midnight last night that is where I was heading... As I lay in bed this morning I started to think light and shade in a different way so I leapt - well, swung my legs over the side of the bed in one action - and headed for my stitching... I used the light creamy colour thread in an vague satin stitch to give the impression of light hitting the pear - I also unpicked the outline stitch from around the darker side to lessen and soften the boundaries so to speak... I want the eye to go around the pear not be halted at the outline...

Hmmm... just reading all this back - I think maybe I am in a different online class to everyone else -I am trying to create a still life - and I so much wanted it to be abstract and obsure. Why can't I think outside of the square!!!!

Back to the drawing board - such an old term - but in this case says it all...