Two down, one to go

The Texas postcard now joins Connecticut in the "finished" column! Here are a few observations I made as I completed stitching the center section.

When I added the bluebonnet leaves in satin stitch in the bottom right corner, I knew my approach to the green shaded bottom section was on target: see how the darkest green floss to the left of the star balances nicely with the leaves?

I struggled with the Lone Star, thinking originally that I'd work it in a textured stitch to make it stand out from the background. I ripped out my initial choice--diagonal oblong cross--frankly, because it looked horrid! Then I remembered a problem I'd had last year on an "underwater" project in which my little angel fish disappeared into the vibrant background. The solution to re-establishing the fishy's identity had been to outline it--so I first outlined the star in the darker shade of floss, and in so doing, made it stand out front and center!

I did a little research on the internet to help me choose just the right shades of floss to stitch the armadillo, the official small mammal of Texas. To my surprise, I learned that female armadillos always bear litters of quadruplets--either all male or all female!

I know--I'm a bit of a research freak!--but in looking at photos of bluebonnets to pick the right shade of blue, I realized that there's a little white tip on the flower clusters. So I started stitching with white French knots, then adding the light blue and finally the predominant darker blue.

On to Kansas, to complete my set of three Denise DeRusha postcards!