Orange Rug Yarn Musings

I finished my Take It Further Challenge January piece a few days ago and got it scanned and ready to send out today. It is also my ATC for the 2007 Cyberstitchers President's Challenge, so it needs to be in today's express mail (nothing like the last minute!)

Believe it or not, I actually had blocked it to square before sewing it together, but it is already moving back off square. It might have been better if I had stitched it on stretcher bars instead of in hand, although that hasn't always helped me. Maybe I should have mounted it to a piece of cardboard or at least a piece of interfacing. Oh well. I was really happy with how well the fabric scrap I used for the back worked for the color scheme. This is the same fabric I'm using for a sampler and have used for one or two other projects. The plaid is plain enough to work over, but the lines are handy for working on the square.

I choose to do the color challenge because I realized last year that using a color scheme not picked by me helps me move beyond my usual creative ruts and blocks and broadens my work in very good ways. I tend to use a lot of salvaged materials (i.e. thrift shop finds, closeout floss colors), so sometimes I'll pick a color scheme based on what I have, but that can be limiting in a different way - particularly since sometimes that leaves me with a color palette that screams some past trend. While there are one or two things I'd do differently if I did this piece again, I'm quite happy with how it turned out and having a little difficulty with the idea of sending it off for exchange.

But off to the post office it goes!