Saving an Embroidery Project

I've been thinking about embroidery a lot lately, and then out of the blue my new friend gives me some craft books including one of taking doodles and then using them for embroidery patterns. Of course the book had interesting doodles but I'd prefer to use my own. That is the plus side of  being an artist; I can draw my own art.

The I started reading a novel called Calligraphy of a Witch or maybe it's called the Witch's Calligraphy. At any rate, the heroine does embroidery to help her overcome being sold as a slave. So once again in some strange way embroidery has entered my life.

So last night I stitched a floral design on a dish towel that I bought years ago for that purpose. Then I picked up an old project of a hummingbird that I was making for Guy's mom. Somehow I'd done a lot of the chart wrong so I'd abandoned the project. But I realized the important thing wasn't to slavishly copy the pattern in the magazine, just as long as the end result still looks like a hummingbird. So now I'm just eyeballing it, following the coloring and the lines of the pattern, and not worrying about following the design. It's the only way it's going to get done. I didn't even have a record of what color floss I'd already used. But I'd already finished the body and the beak, so I just have to get the wings right more or less. When it comes to the hibiscus part, I should be able to use the chart again. I feel good that I'll be able to save it and not lose all the labor I've already put into it. I started it in 2009.