Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Happy Dance! - D is for Drum!

I still hear the snares in the square
Colours ablaze in the evening
The air was still
Down the stormy hill
It's good to be young and daring

Beat the drum
Beat the drum
Like a heartbeat
Lonely and strong
Beat the drum


Design: D is for Drum
Designer: Prairie Schooler
Threads: DMC
Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream
Stitches: Half cross stitch, backstitch

I've finally finished this block! I think I was dithering over it because of the big changes I made. It seems ridiculous, but I wasn't hugely confident that my modifications would work, but now it is complete, I'm pretty pleased.

This block as charted was very patriotically American. I'm not American, and neither is The Hermit. He's not wildly patriotic in a Canadian or British way either (dual national...), and so any modifications I felt had to reflect my own heritage. My father is English, my mother is Scottish, and as it was my mother who taught me needlecrafts, it was fairly obvious what I'd choose (sorry dad!).

The flag was relatively simple (one of the reasons I chose the Scottish flag, not the British Union Jack!). The Bald Eagle became a Golden Eagle, just by subbing one of the existing colours in. There are quite a number of Golden Eagles in Scotland, although I've not been fortunate enough to see them in the wild. The design in the shield of the drum took more thought - I could repeat the flag motif, but I thought that a little dull. And then I thought about the Lion Rampant, the symbol of Scotland. Could I really design something that looks quite complex and make it so small and yet distinguishable? The answer is yes, with the aid of a computer design programme! It took quite a while, but eventually, I came up with something I was happy with.

This is certainly a very individual block now!

And seeing as I've had the song whose lyrics are written above in my head as I've stitched, I thought I'd add a bit of Runrig too. Runrig are one of my favourite Scottish bands, even though the lead singer in the clip below has now been replaced by a Canadian ;o)






6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your finish, your changes look fantastic! If you hadn't have said, I would have thought it had been designed that way.

Gabi said...

Congrats. It looks fantastic. I like your modifications and think they turned out just great.

DonnaTN said...

Great changes! D for Drum looks fantastic!

Carol said...

Wonderful finish--love the changes you made, too!

Kathy A. said...

Congratulations on your big finish! You did a nice job with your changes. BTW, I love the bees on your blog Great fun.

Blu said...

Congrats! Your modifications look great! The shield looks amazing.