Desert Sunset II

I finally got around to finishing Desert Sunset II!   I've worked on it sporadically for a while now, most recently when I was finishing up my time at my former employer - I would spend hours with nothing to do because I finished my job so early.  Hilariously, my former coworker and I would get most of our job done pretty early and were so efficient that we had no problems.   The job was too much for one person, but not enough for two, and yet, she left and then I did - now they have three people and are barely keeping pace.  I guess we were really that awesome (oh, sorry, I digress, but hey, maybe they should have given us the pay raises we asked for, haha).

Anyway, the guy I used to frame my last set of stuff was going out of business, but now he's just almost out of business and I really want to get my Deserts done if I'm going to get any chance of getting these framed by him.

I have another one of these desert panoramas done (I'll have to take a picture of it to share), and I have one more to do :)  I originally got them from Ginger's in Austin (no longer in business) when I was in school at UT-Austin in the late '90s.  I probably purchased these patterns, with the then not-much-seen overdyed threads in '97 or '98

I started this on 7/21/2015 (one of the "younger" piece I've started since moving to NC) and finished on 10/11/2017 (I didn't post because I was gone to a conference for a week, coincidentally in Austin!).   The pattern calls for 18ct feather blue aida, but I prefer the look of higher counts, so I ordered a lot of blues and grays in 36 ct and ended up with a 36ct sterling.   It's greyer than the original, but I still think it looks good.

So here we are:

It's a really wide/long piece, so I can put both on the same piece and cut them later for framing.   I do love it, it reminds me of when I lived in Tucson, which is still one of my favorite places I've ever lived.

There is a lot of blending of two different threads in this piece (and a little bit of both long stitching for the ocotillos and a bit of backstitching along the foothills.    There only a couple of symbols that are not blended, and there are three different overdyes.   With the overdyes (which are fairly dramatic), the pattern indicates the direction of the stitching to give the variegation in the pattern they want.   For example, the mountains were stitched top to bottom, the clouds (in the corner) in an arc.

You can see more of the variegation in the dark red of the fiery clouds.

I didn't realize I got to stitch the actual sun until I was doing it.  I had the idea it was behind the mountain when I looked at the (very small) model picture.

Anyway, that's Desert Sunset II, I have to do I by January (personal goal).  I look forward to getting all three framed at some point, hopefully soon.   My partner keeps telling me we don't have enough wall space for all of the art and stitching, but I think he's wrong ;)