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Happy New year. Last year I was away with TW's Fairies: viewtopic.php?t=32310 having completed the full set of 6 Fairies I ending the year with work on Rosewood Manor's "and then a forest grew" This is what the original looked like:



Mine will have a more appropriate quote in the middle

The first Sunday of a new year and I continue working sideways on my ever growing forest:



You may just be able to see the branches on the right are dipping down again, this is an indication of where the middle is

Jo

Nice to reach a point where you can see the completion ahead of you!

Phew!



The branches actually joined up

Jo

That must have been a relief! (I've had to do some unpicking recently because things didn't...)

Steam.Jo wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2025 12:40 pm Phew!



The branches actually joined up

Jo

Phew indeed! It's always a bit scary...

When I work something like that or a “frame” all around, I count and recount and still hold my breath, hoping I counted correctly.

This is beautiful.

Its official I am over half way:



I am still trying to decide on a saying to go in the middle

Jo

Not surprised -- it's a big responsibility. It has to be worthy of both the subject and the stitching. It needs to be about the same length of text, clearly. I would suggest looking for good quotes about trees, or nature in general, and perhaps you'll find something as all-encompassing as the original?

Or if you want something shorter, perhaps you could duplicate some of the smaller trees inside the area?

One of the sayings I used with the Tree of Life SAL was "Wisdom is a tree of life for those who take hold of her" - might that be the sort of thing you would like?

I am still looking for something suitable. I have tried scribbling down something the best I have so far is:

The rays of the rising sun form the tree of life,
It spreads its long arms like branches,
giving nourishment to all living things.
The branches embrace us leading us on our way,
to the sunset and the peace of the night to come.

I have not looked to see if it fits, the original was about 36 words...

Jo

That would work very well!

Of course the problems do not stop there as I now have to find a suitable alphabet to use.

It would have been too easy for the publishers to include it in the pattern. They do provide one for the name block but it is too small. Looking closely at the central font I thought it was 8 stitches high but a few are 9 high, and the widths go up to 7 stitches for an m and down to 2 for an i

I might regret this

Jo

Nah. And it'll be fabulous.

If you chart out the letters you do have from the original quote, then I bet it won't take too long to figure out how any extra ones might look. (Bet you thought of that...!)

The tree on the bottom left took a lot longer than expected:



Time for a scroll and hopefully a lovely new overlocker will be delivered in the next hour

Jo

i can see why it was time-consuming -- all those little changes. Looking good. Scroll on!

Looking good!

This si amazing.

Progress:



That is all of the trees and animals completed. The last part is to add the words and lettering in three places.

Then there is the recovery of all of the threads back onto the bobbins . At least that is something I can (Safely ?) I can do with a glass of wine in my hand.

Jo

Fantastic. This is such a wonderful piece. Have you decided yet what phrase you'll put in the centre?