Sunday, October 17, 2010

wedding embroidery for paul and andrea.

I finally finished this wedding gift. I didn't make the first natural deadline, which was their wedding in September. I was still working on it, slowly making progress, when I found out the newlyweds would be making the trip down to Morton this weekend, to celebrate Nate's 30th birthday with us. I made this my new deadline, and I was really pushing myself to get it done. After many, many hours of work, this is the end result.
I have mixed feelings about this piece. I really like the design, which is based on an amazing photograph of them. I like the words over the image and the many concentric borders around the image. I like how colorful they are. I think their faces came out pretty well and are a good likeness to the photo, which was not easy to achieve. It's hard to describe my reservations about this piece, but I think they are all related to the very loud, busy fabric I chose to use as a background. In a way, I owe the fabric a debt of inspiration. I drew the colors for the stitching straight from the fabric, and I like them. But in my mind's eye, there wasn't going to be so much of the fabric showing. I thought more of it would end up being covered by either stitching or the mat. As it turned out, I'm afraid the fabric overpowers the stitching. The image doesn't stand out as much as I would like. So I'm a little disappointed about that. I guess that wasn't so hard to describe. Because I spent so very much time on this piece, I'm trying hard to love it. In some ways I do, but I think it fell just a little short of its amazing potential. Anyway, it's finished now, I think Paul and Andrea liked it. I am glad.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Nate's birthday with friends. Thank you to those of you who were able to travel down. A great, relaxing way to usher in a new decade.

The week leading up to Nate's birthday was insane. I was trying to get too much done. Painting and decorating the boys' bathroom, cleaning the house top to bottom for our guests, finishing and framing this embroidered gift. I feel so relieved now that it's over. I need to start another wedding gift, but this one can be done at a more relaxed pace. This week I want to spend a lot of time outside. Last week was so gorgeous, and I missed it, holed up inside trying to get my projects done. I want to soak up this beautiful fall before it's over.

1 comment:

TaylorStreet said...

I think the embroidery looks amazing, Laura. You have a nutty amount of talent and dedication. Way to be.