Forgotten ribbon purse canvas

I think everyone who stitches has partially finished projects tucked away.  I know I do--in fact, I can look back through my blog entries and identify several culprits that I have yet to finish.  Who knows if I will.  The projects are often out of sight, out of mind.  I was pointedly reminded of this last week when a customer was looking for a purse canvas to stitch for her granddaughter.  She was considering what style purse she would do when I showed her canvases for purses designed by Joanie Sherman from The Studio Midwest.  While I have a small version in 18mesh as a finished model which I showed the customer, I remembered that I had also started a 13mesh version which finishes larger.  After scrambling around in the backroom for a few minutes, I managed to unearth this beauty.

 I started stitching this canvas about 10 years ago and even had Joanie paint canvases in this colorway, though not painting all that black.  I sold about three of the canvases to customers who finished and are carrying their purses--and one of whom often asks me about my shop model!
Will she ever be surprised this winter when I can show her this actually finished.

I'm going to stitch it as my shop project to follow the two-sided Santa because I want people to see me stitching "in hand".  The background is the diagonal mosaic and you can see that the canvas isn't distorted very much.  The ribbon and dots are being stitched in basketweave using Kreinik metallic. 

I'm using three shades of gold and 3 shades of silver with the dots and white areas being 102, vatican.

I changed the colors for two reasons--I wanted customers to see for themselves that colors can be changed on a canvas.  I also wanted a shop model that was elegant and timeless.  I love preppy colors, but my personal wardrobe tends more towards black and silver.  And shop models sometimes serve double duty!