Starting the second six months of stitching

 Having made it half way through the year in terms of stitching, the next six months are looming.  It's funny how it works, being a month or so behind in stitching; I can look back over the whole month and try to work out how best to achieve it.

July caused me grief. Too much happened and I did not think I had a hankie big enough to handle it all.

What to do? Do I re-design, edit or stitch two hankies?

I ummed and ahhed a while and asked Barry's opinion.

We both agreed that it had to be one hankie not two. 

Here I am comparing my hand written notes, with two of the 6 hankies available. Seriously, all those words will not fit in the bottom one. The top one has potential; but I think it would be crammed.

The other four options...

Also not looking good when the words are alongside them.

In the end, we decided to re-design. Firstly, I combined a few lines (e.g. rather than 'Perth out' on one line, followed by 'Darwin out'; I combined them onto one line).

Secondly I edited (e.g.Worst day yet - with hindsight this was pretty superfluous and added very little - except the innocence and naivety of the statement, which I often try to note as a reminder that we didn't know what was coming).

And managed to fit the words on - in-between some of the decorative elements and not as straightforward as previous hankies, but that adds to the message of increasing complexity and messiness I feel.

This is my thread palette thus far. I am sticking with 6 colours and definitely NOT re-using the thread for January as it is way too pale.

The first stitch was made during the week, and August is looming like another biggie here.

 

PS that is NOT the stitch that was made! Laugh.