Lily of the Valley // embroidery

Have you ever completed a project and felt totally and completely deflated? It's remarkably similar to the just-finished-a-book phase where you can't start another book because that would be almost cheating because you're still living in the book world and couldn't possibly move yet.

That's the exact feeling I experienced when I finished this project (although to be totally honest I'm not entirely finished, not yet). I had high hopes for hanging this embroidery on the wall so that I could cross an item off my bucket list.

Years ago, I wrote a list of things to do and one of the items is make something to hang on the wall, photography doesn't count. I had originally intended for this project to fulfill that goal. Alas, it seems not to be so. It doesn't look quite right in a frame and seems oddly small.

So although I have finished the embroidery project part, I am still deciding how to display it. I have a few choices: I could make a mini quilt to hang on the wall, which would fulfill the bucket list item. I could make a pillow, which seems more desirable given our utter lack of pillows for the couch, but more expensive as I would have to buy a pillow insert. I already have fabric and batting so the mini quilt seems more likely, but I can't be sure until I'm suddenly overcome with the urge to actually finish.

Yes, the blue water soluble pen is visible in this photo but I assure you it's gone now

Once I've completed whatever this embroidery is destined to be, you can be sure I'll share it. I'm actually quite intrigued as to what it will become. A lot of my projects are like this - just about completed but not quite. It must be related to the finish-book-syndrome, but instead it's finished project disorder. I love starting new projects, but tend to loose steam. It might be due to a slight edge of perfectionism about my person. I want all these projects to turn out exactly how I imagine them and if they're not quite up to snuff I'm completely dissatisfied with them (it has a lot to do with comparison too, which is completely unfair, to both/all parties). It's a character flaw to be sure. One that I hope to get the best of so that I can actually use this work. Because it really is quite lovely. Or so I am inclined to think.