Rust Red Iris - Half of the Right Petal

The right petal can be divided distinctly into two halves - the colours and the stitch direction change (the stitch direction on the bottom half is more curved)

So here's the bottom half

and the flappy bit on the top petal, which I'd forgotten to do last time I posted. It looks lumpy on the scan - but that's the lighter colours 'coming forward'.

I felt like it was an exercise in geometry - look at the way the un-embroidered part of the petal is marked up.

It's hard work trying to get the blend of colours right in the petal. I've had to do a lot of over-sewing simply to get them mixed up enough. I hope, with experience, that I will be able to put down just one layer and end up with a completely random mix, but I can't do it yet. I need to add more stitches on top of the existing ones.

I keep thinking of Michael Cook's peony, where he seemed to achieve colour mix without too much oversewing (or any!)

I might extend the darkest green a bit. I'll see how it is when the whole petal is done, because the bit above is a small bit of cream then a lot of light pink, so the dark green might end up in proportion with that.