As you know, the Geisha's kimono is in three shades of plum and has flowers on the outside. (It has little squares on the inner part but more about those another time.) I tent stitched all the deep plum color first (4 plies of Splendor #S1037) before stitching the flowers. In the photo above, they are all done except for the bottom flower on the right side, which still has lower petals to go. Using my pale dusty pink Soie Perlee (a silk perle thread that is about the size of #8 cotton perle according to the Thread Thesaurus) in color 3333, I filled the chrysanthemum shapes with packed stem stitch, working from the outside largest curve to the inside. In a few places I did a tent or reverse tent stitch to indicate the single stitch that was painted there. Occasionally I noticed that my stem stitches weren't packed tightly and had to go back and add a stitch between two that didn't touch the way they were supposed to.
I'm hoping this looks like a chain stitch flower that I've seen on many Chinese robes. I know our ladies are Japanese but the flowers reminded me of Chinese embroidery and I suppose it isn't inconceivable that The Geisha might have a robe made from imported Chinese silk.
Enjoy!
Jane/Chilly Hollow Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
