On December 8th of 2011 I posted an article, One Stitch at a Time. After many hours and many stitches it is complete. The above picture is not well lighted and doesn't show the lush surface that was achieved. Often when working at this scale I feel the work doesn't hold it's own unless it is framed, but this little piece commands it's wall space nicely.
The finished size of the piece is 17.5"h x 18"w. I would love to stitch a piece that is perhaps 6' x 6' but right now I can't begin to even think of what that would require in the way of pure determination to finish a project like that.
The above detail shows how I did a running stitch between the embroidered stitches. I did the embroidery first. Were I to do it over I'd do the overall stitches first but I had no clear idea when I began as to how this would work out.
Here you can see the contrast between the more dense stitching and the more lightly stitched areas.
Many stitchers talk about hand stitching as a meditation. It is a quiet activity but I'm not too sure about the meditation part for myself.. For this piece the meditation would have been something like, "I am here. I am stitching. Mind wanders off. I wish I was finished. Come back mind. I am here. I am stitching." Toward the 75% finished place it was more like a prayer: Please give me the tenacity to complete this. PLEASE!!! The scary part is I actually have a much larger piece in progress that I started about the same time I began this little fellow. I think I'll let that one simmer for awhile.
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