Thursday, January 24, 2008

Take it Further - Stand Your Ground

This is my response to Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge for this month. It was to express something about a person you admire. I chose my husband. I admire him greatly, and the tree symbolizes one of his central traits. He hews to his principles and doesn't waver, ergo he stands his ground. The tree's roots are deep. At the same time, when the wind blows hard and change is being forced, he doesn't lose those principles, but bends to fit the circumstances at the edges, just as a tree's branches sway and bend in the wind. In the end, the tree doesn't change what or where it is, just like my husband doesn't. He's seen the tree and loves it. Now he's trying to figure out how to frame it. I think he's putting it in his office.
This is the very first design I've ever taken from my mind to completion in embroidery. I'd done it in crochet before, but never in this. I like it. The goldwork with the brown floss worked well. The lazy daisy stitches aren't very uniform, but I think they shouldn't be. The design's only about four inches square, but the way it looks gives me confidence to try something else. On top of that, it applies to my project challenge because it was completely stitched from stash. I wonder what next month's will be.

15 comments:

Vicki W said...

What a beautiful and beautifully executed tribute and you really took the TIF principle by doing a new technique. Perfect!

Angela said...

Your finished piece is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Meg, this is beautiful and I love the sentiment behind it :)

Andreas said...

Very pretty.

Juli said...

This is great! Congrats on your first self-designed embroidery! Funny enough, I did a tree for my TIF project this month too, although I'm doing the color scheme.

Debra Dixon said...

Great little piece and even more so because your husband likes it!

LynnS said...

What a fantastic tribute to your husband and the symbolism of the tree has undoubtedly pleased him, too. Well done! Your finished TIF is lovely.

Anonymous said...

Great finish well done.

Anonymous said...

Well done with 'going a bit further' and hopefully by the end of the year, you will be saying to yourself, why didn't I do this sooner. We all tend to underestimate ourselves and you have just proved that to yourself. Great tribute to your husband.

Sylvia said...

What a wonderful tribute to your husband. I hope he knows how much you value him.

Pat said...

What a beautiful piece, the colour scheme is so restful and complements the idea behind it I think,

Unknown said...

Well I do know how much my wife loves me. She shows it everyday. I was surprised when she told me what she was doing. I love it. Now I have the challenge of designing the perfect accompaniment.

Padparadscha said...

What a beautiful and delicate work !

Jude said...

Beautiful sentiment and beautiful work.

Laura said...

This is so lovely!