A year ago I started an ambitious project from Sew Liberated by Meg McElwee, on the heels of making these Wildflower Curtains for my daughter's room, which were inspired by the same book.



In the process of making the curtains, I fell in love with the ease of applique via fusible web.  I wanted another project that combined applique and embroidery, so I settled on this lovely clock.  Isn't it incredible?



Well, I was still such a novice at all this that I traced the embroidery pattern on my linen background in black ink.  When I started embroidering the numbers, I used all 6 strands of embroidery floss - completely unaware of the option for separating them!  So, this is how my numbers came out...



Sad, I know.

I completed the remaining embroidery on the piece with separated embroidery floss strands (thanks, Trudi), but then I lost my motivation. This project sat around abandoned until just recently.  With fresh eyes, I could see that I would never like the look of those numbers.  But since I'd already purchased all of the materials for completing the clock and since the rest of the work looked nice, I decided to rip out the original numbers and replace them like this:



That works, don't you think? It hides the ink anyways!

Today I appliqued the leaves on my tree, and now it's starting to look pretty, I think. Yeah!  I used two shades of shot cotton from my Tiny Patchwork Shower Curtain and Henna Garden in Leaf.



Now I just need to put in the fun little details like the owl, bird, mushrooms and flowers.  I'm so glad this little project was rescued.  My sewing room/dining room really needs a clock!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!