Snowdrops

I have had a few "design" attempts in the past, usually modest and not too spectacular, more often than not, minor adaptations of patterns to make them sit better. I only have a few patterns that I can say are somewhat my idea, but not really noteworthy.

I have thus far made a ring (using an edging), a free form "rasta" bracelet (really, just coiled chains and beads), a necklace (my proudest achievement, but I am still working on improving it) and now a snowdrop.

One of our friends asked me to make him a snowdrop for his mother and I started thinking of the shape.

My first idea was enclosing the flower inside a heart formed by the stem and a leaf:

I had so far hidden most ends too.

I also cut off the flower and tried a few other arrangements and sent our friend the pictures. He liked the first one, so I remade it (because I had already cut the flower off). He just wanted a somewhat different flower.

The design is not really perfect, as the flower tries to shift away from the center of the heart, but a little wood glue helped it stay put.

The final version. The dark ugly gray thread is in fact emerald green, but my lighting is not good for photos.

If anyone cares to try this idea, here are my notes (I am a terrible pattern maker but they work for me). Any improvement or criticism is welcome.

Curved stem (Josephine chain)
Long narrow leaf from bottom connected to flower top
Two shuttles

leaf  + top and bottom rings: green
ch1 40
r1 1-3-1-3
ch2 30
r2 5

stem: green
jch1 84 half stitches
connect to last p of r1

3 full petal flower: white
r3 9-4-5
r4 5+4-4-5
r5 5+4-9

or


2 petal flower and small petal peeking between: white
r3 9-3-3-3
r4 3+3-3-9
ch 3-3 (I cut before this chain and made it separately; there must be a better way, but I don't know it yet...)

alternative with split ring for flower version 2 (thank you Muskaan):
r3 9-3-3-3
sr1 3+3/9-3
ch 3-3+(join to p1 of r3)