The Enemy of Perfection: Silk Sweet Peas

One of my favorite quotes of all time was from the movie "Beau Brummel" when I was young and impressionable - about Beau Brummel, friend of George III of England. When being outfitted in that first tuxedo he created, he told his tailor, "Haste is the enemy of perfection."

I was looking at these silk ribbon sweet peas this morning, and thinking maybe I should have practiced a bit after I figured out how to do them - as this is one flower I haven't seen done before. However, if I had practiced and made them better, they wouldn't be "hand made" but would start looking like the machine made things.
I do love the charm of hand stitched as opposed to the regularity of machine generated embroidery.

I have to do this bit by bit, and then put it away for a few hours and look at it again to be able to tell what it needs next. I think a few more leaves, and it will be done except for whatever I decide to do on that blue patch on the left - has to be simple so as not to compete with all those dancing sweet peas.
The detail is showing the little curly thing that will attach the vine to whatever wall it's climbing on. This is just a simple back stitch made with 4plies of Splendor silk. I just kind of "drew" it with needle and thread - improvising. This is part of what is so enjoyable about surface embellishment with silk ribbon flowers!!

I've been out taking pictures of a few flowers I found in the neighborhood - Austin is already baking from heat and lack of rain, so I wanted to get what I could find so I can try to re-invent them in silk ribbon. I already figured out how to replicate the crepe myrtles, which have amazing tolerance for Texas weather.