African Sunset
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Stitcher: |
Nancy Earel |
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Designer: |
Nancy Earel |
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Location: |
Hanging in my home. |
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Description: |
I saw a canvas of various African animals. Since
I prefer just the giraffe and elephant, a light bulb went off and I said,
“I can do that!” I looked through books to get the shape of the
animals and noted they were often shown against a sunset. “Echo of the
Elephant,” a PBS publication, and “Tall Blondes” by Lynn Sherr
provided inspiration.
I think elephants and giraffes are so dear. Elephants are so caring and giraffes don’t have a mean thought (although they don’t like change). I love them. Once I had the idea to do them, I couldn’t stop. This is my first attempt at design and it became exciting. I have no confidence in design or color so it was scary making decisions. A good friend gave me lots of encouragement. I have had so much fun with “African Sunset.” I love to stitch but never thought I could do my own piece. After I decided to do the background in a random darning pattern, I thought, “WOW! I drew on past experience and stored information to make a design choice!” This has been an exhilarating experience from start to finish, from pencil drawings to framing to sharing with my chapter. The fun hasn’t stopped—receiving a ribbon at the ANG Exhibit was amazing and now this. When we started our chapter seven years ago, we sent out flyers saying, “Join us, we’re not your basic tent stitch anymore.” Little did I know how right we were. |
