And February Begins

I am beginning the month with ... surprise, surprise ... The English Band Sampler.  The satin stitching on Band 6 continues to be the primary focus.  The outer petals in DMC 352 stitched up relatively quickly though I had to go back and frog out two petals that were stitched in the wrong direction.  That's what comes of stitching after 8:00pm; I make mistakes.   The remaining crosses in the octagonal medallions didn't take more than an hour. Then came the long haul: doing all the narrow fawn colored satin stitches inside the navy blue squares and in the connecting diagonals.

I have already stitched two of the fawn stripes in the top far right square in the recommended two strands and I really don't like the lumpy and untidy results.  I then stitched one square with one strand to see if it looks neater.  I like the look of one strand better.  I'll have to frog the pair of stripes done in two strands.  But it would be a shame to have worked so hard and so long on this piece only to be aggravated by dissatisfaction with one small aspect of the whole.  I would far rather take a little extra time and effort now than be tormented by having to look everyday at a piece that I know could have been better.  Another solution would be to replace the dozens of tiny horizontal satin stitches with three long vertical stitches using two strands.  I admit I am sorely tempted by such a quick fix.  Opinions anyone?  Which do you think looks better, always remembering that these are close-up shots.  When hung on the wall, these will be viewed from a distance of several feet and as a small part of a much larger whole.  The one stranded stitches won't appear to barely cover the area from such a distance.  Instead, the human eye will adjust and blend the stitches into a continuous line of color.