Forest Song

So, here it is, finally finished. The picture is a disappointment - our camera went wonky on us during our vacation in July and now I can't use the close-up mode to get a sharp picture of the stitching and the colors also come out kind of weird. This is stitched on a lovely "chestnut" color linen that really deserves its name (it isn't the putty color of the photo). I'll post another picture after we've had our poor Nikon CoolPix serviced. It's been a great camera for several years now, so I hope they can fix it up for us.

I've learned a lot about stitching (again!) with this project. I gathered together different design elements I've seen or thought about and very roughly boxed them out on a piece of graph paper to make sure they wouldn't run into each other. I didn't do any color coding, just took the colors I wanted when I wanted. Now that it's finished, I can see where a more thoughtful approach to color and how it is assigned to design elements would've improved this piece a lot. I may stitch it again, but differently. Next time I do my own design, I will chart it out properly on paper with the colors assigned in advance so I can see if the overall effect is harmonious. More lead-in time, and I am fiercely impatient, but it would've taken this from a so-so piece to something really graceful and lovely. Still, not a bad attempt and it will go into the birthday calendar I will make when I get enough bird pieces. (Making that will be a learning experience of another sort, as I am truly awful at finishing...)

On another note, we are getting used to my dad being gone, though we miss him still. It is the busy pre-school season, which is actually not much busier than the summer holiday season but the focus is different. We are also readying ourselves for Nicky's upcoming surgery. Okay, I am trying to ready myself. Basically, I despise hospitals and don't trust doctors. So putting my little boy into a germy, impersonal, inefficiently run establishment where he'll be knocked unconscious and have bits of his body sliced off or punctured by someone I am not sure I'd even trust to babysit ... well, it has me silently screaming from time to time. Still and all, most people hasten to assure me that they do "hundreds of these a week" and I'm not to worry. Of course, the assembly-line mental images I get of them doing hundreds of operations a week doesn't exactly calm my nerves, but I'm not letting on. Really. I'm cool as ice. Sure I am.