The Mabon piece was the one panel that gave me the fits from the very beginning.  I just couldn’t seem to get started on embroidering the goose.  I don’t know what the problem was but I was totally blocked.  Finally, since I needed to just START, I did.  I began outlining the goose around and around and then put in the feet, then the white patch and then she just took off and FLEW.  I’m particularly enamored with the wing and tail feathers.  Which, for those of you who think folks like me just do it right the first time, had it’s colors changed three times before I was happy.  Sew, rip it out, sew, rip it out, sew and I better be happy because I’ll ruin the velvet ground.

I’ve decided to add, where I can, an element in each panel.   The original idea was to have an animal and a plant but I think I need an element.  Guess this one is air…

I received a wood burning tool for my birthday and a bunch of watercolor tools and paraphenalia.  The Witch of Forest Grove had a lot to do with inspiration. I have some practicing to do, some finer tips to buy but we shall see how this progresses.  What I really love is that I can start and complete a piece in far less time than with needlework.  OMG.  Needlework is so time consuming.  Not that I don’t love it, I do.  It’s my passion.  But I love other things too and have been desiring to get back to painting and learning some other things.

So.

Ta da!  I call this As Above So Below. And there will be more…

I figured that I should document something other than the fact that I’m not working.  I’ve been working on the Wheel of the Year project again.  With most large projects I work on, I tend to get to a certain point of okayness, get overwhelmed with some aspet I didn’t think out as far as I could have, get bored, want to work on something else for awhile. Whatever the reason I set aside large projects for significant amounts of time. I haven’t worked on these panels in quite some time.   It appears to be March 2008.  Whoa.  I might have picked them up here and there but not for much.  But I keep them close and when I was moving into my folks home I thought it would a great portable project.

And I’m back in it and having a really great time.  At the time I started I told myself I would get all the basics stitched in and if I didn’t want to work on it more I would call it good and finish it up.  I’ve decided that I want this to be taken to the nth degree.  I’m going to put a lot more into these panels.  More than I show here even. I want this thing embellished as much as possible and have accepted that this might take me a very long time.   The backgrounds are going to be filled in more.  I can hardly wait to see how this all works out.

I’ve made some small and large changes to several of the panels.  I will show how the panels looked in March 08 and how they look today. Clickie make biggie…

Yule – added snow and snowflakes (crystals), the white made a huge difference, not sure if it shows in the photo but things really pop now.

Then:

Continue reading →