sunflower

so I'm finally able to post this project now that the recipient has seen it! it's the first flower I did before the ring I made. this one took about 12 hours to stitch up, but it kinda flew by doing a little at a time while listening to music and the first installment of The City Life Supplement.

for the petals I did a picot stitch in rounds for 7 rows, starting from the center and making each row progressively larger

did a bunch of french knots for the middle

and I went around the edge in a green chain stitch

I finished the back side like this lady did on her blog, but I used a piece of metal from a biscuit can and cut it to the same size I traced from the inside of the hoop.

I had originally envisioned larger petals that would spill over the frame on the hoop, but the picot stitch didn't come out right when I did it on a bigger scale. I can go longer with it, but wider didn't look so good. I think I know how to correct this, but after all these petals and french knots, I think it'll be a little while before I pick it back up again ;)