Making a sunflower

I've been having a go at sewing this sunflower as an experiment to get a feel for what it's like to work a simple picture. I hasten to add that the design isn't mine, as explained below.



I've made some mistakes, so some areas are a bit thick where I had to go over them with another colour - particularly on the leaves and stem, which I couldn't get right. And the back has ended up very messy as I was moving fairly randomly from place to place once I had a particular colour in my needle - need to do some reading up about the correct technique for doing this I think! But I've enjoyed the process anyway.

I like the resulting texture. The tent stitch (not sure if I can really call it that as I didn't work it in rows) provides what feels like a really hard-wearing, smooth (ish) finish, which makes me think in terms of tacking a foot stool or chair cover at some stage when I've learnt more. It feels so much tougher than the simple upright stitch of the cushion.

The use of shading has also opened my eyes to the possibilities. I've no talent for drawing, so am going to look through my photos at the weekend and see what I've got that's simple enough for similar treatment.

The design of the sunflower is copied as best I could (ie I made lots of mistakes where I miscounted) from one of the flowers on a lovely completed needlepoint picture of a field of sunflowers. I bought it a few weeks ago from someone who hadn't room for all the beautiful work done by her late mother-in-law, Maureen. I'd been thinking of buying the same Anchor kit, but instead came across the completed one and figured I'd appreciate someone else's labours instead!