Now - last week I wrote in a very depressed mood about a big panel that I'd spent a lot of time on and which didn't turn out very well. I had a lot of VERY kind comments from people who said it probably wasn't as bad as I thought, and a couple of them actually wanted to see it for themselves. Well, OK, you asked for it! (well, some of you did anyway!) so here's the prodigal panel
Could do better...
There are seven large designs, all stitched separately. The designs themselves aren't all that bad, if a bit ordinary, but I just didn't put them together right. For example, look at the top right-hand pot, with the blue flowers. The pot just seems to be floating in mid-air, and not standing together with the other pots. And the painted background is too "noisy" and complicated, so that it overwhelms the flowers. And then there are the technical problems. If you look at the fabric around the single red rose, you can see a lot of wrinkles where the background fabric is rucked up. And then there are...but I won't go on!
Oh well, you can't get everything right all the time, and I've learned a huge amount from this experience. And I'm really grateful to all those kind people who were so encouraging!