"Winter Joy" - a lovely floral wreath with white anemones. Status - complete!

This is my most favorite wreath among the ones that I've stitched so far. White anemones, blueberries that perfectly match the centering of the flowers, leaves motif, petite blossoms and beads to add more dimensional variety to the work.

The anemones flowers don't grow in the place where I live, so the first time I saw them was on Pinterest. It was the love from the first sight! Such a grace and delicacy, and such a wonderful combination of colors! I love all the species, but this particular one – the white one with dark center absolutely charmed me with its unique beauty.

Since the flower has a cold color palette, I was going to stick to the same cold shades of white and blue when I was thinking of the pattern. But then I decided to add a bit of warmth with the beige leaves motif.

I drew the wreath with crayons first.

Then it was the time to decide on the stitches I would use. For the anemones I went with long-short stitching to fill in the petals, padded satin stitch for the center and french knots as stamen. I love the look of it!

You may notice that in the process I simplified the flowers a bit, getting rid of the majority of underlying petals. The problem was, I wasn't sure I would execute them pretty enough for my liking. After removing the stitches that I was disappointed in, I decided that simplicity will be my best friend.

The leaves motif is stitched using fly stitch – I adore the combination of a hard “backbone” look it gives to the leaves together with the lace effect. And to further stress this lacy appearance, I used the buttonhole stitch for the petite blossoms. They are stitched in a natural “linen” shade of floss.

At last, I added the blueberries twigs stitched with stem stitch and french knots.

After I washed and ironed the piece, I embellished it with beads placing them in a random order among the leaves and blossoms.

Such wreaths are perfect for adding a monogram or a phrase inside, but I think I will leave this one as it is. Its measurements are 7.5 x 7.5 inches.

As always, I still don't know whether I will just frame it and hang on a wall or use somewhere. I'm not fond of a pillow cover idea, to be honest. Thinking about stretching it on a canvas. Maybe... I will look further into it. For now, I will add this piece to the pile of my complete and unframed embroidery that is waiting for its fate to be decided.