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Friday 15 February 2013

A Friday Finish

About a year and a half ago, I stitched a scene called Twelve Trees.  It's a scene from up on the hills at overlooking Blackstrap Lake, near Cedar Lodge.  There's this quirky line of planted trees - perfectly spaced but growing every-which-way.  Up the opposite side of the bank, there was a canola field on the horizon.  It was such a neat scene.  Wendy has it displayed at her store.  Every time I look at it, I am surprised at how much I like it!  I've always thought of redoing that one at a different size.  Hers is 3" by 9".  So I started one last weekend that is about 5.5" x 11".

work in progress... Should I?  Shouldn't I?

There's the background, a.k.a. the ugly phase.  I don't even like showing it on the blog.  This one in fact felt so ick at this stage that I was eyeballing the garbage can.  I nearly tossed it.  The thought went through my head, 'What if I do hours of hand stitching and it still sucks?  What a waste of time that will be!'

I decided at the least to start the structures of the trees to see if things were worth saving.  I stitched little marks, all spaced evenly apart.  This is where the trees come out of the ground.  I actually took a ruler out and held it against the photo just to see.  Sure enough, these were mathematically planted.  I think that's the draw for me with this scene.  It's so comical, not to mention the fact that the trees are so small in stature that they can't possibly provide much of a windbreak high up on that hill.

photo of twelve trees by Cedar Lodge overlooking Blackstrap Lake (yes - overly brightened for my viewing pleasure)

Well it worked!  I liked the trees - they brought the charm to the piece and i was able to spend the rest of the day stitching purple alfalfa and bunches of yellow sweet clover into the lower third.  I'm done!

Twelve Trees #2, 2013

Thank GOODNESS I didn't throw it out.  It's a really great piece.  That'll teach me...


10 comments:

Threadpainter said...

A good decision ... it looks great !!!

Margaret said...

Great wee piece, Monika! Seems as though, in our own ways, each of us loves a tree line! :-)

Kitchener Quilter said...

Great Piece, glad it didn't get tossed!

Ruth said...

Hi Monika,

I love your work! Beautiful as always.
|Ruth

Molly said...

so many things that are worthy of our time and trouble would get chucked out in their early phases if we didn't have faith in the future!
think teenagers.....
hee hee!
beautiful piece, my dear!
cheers
molly

Hilda said...

I would be happy to create a finished piece that rivaled your work in progress at what you frequently call the "ugly phase." I'm in awe of your beautiful work. Maybe someday I'll be able to take one of your classes!

josette.272@gmail.com said...

HEUREUSEMENT QU IL N A PAS ETE JETE C EST TROP BEAU UNE MERVEILLE J ADORE BIZ A BIENTOT MONIKA

Dahn said...

So Pretty Monika! The description was as good as the picture--I like that these are quarky trees.. :-)

Ladydy5 aka: Diane Yates said...

If you ever throw any of your work out please throw it my way. You are amazinkg.

Kit Lang said...

So beautiful!!! I'm with Diane - anything you wanna throw out - send it to me. :)

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