Here is my finished rabbit. I decided it would be better to take it apart, then embroider, then put it back together. In the process, I hit two small snags. First in taking it apart, I cut some non-binding thread that's kind of important for design, but thankfully Dala had some fabric glue to help me take care of that. Then in the process of putting it back together, I realized no matter how much I tried to avoid it, due to bulk, there was gonna be some blue border poking out in a few parts.

My wife was a really wonderful sounding board for the decorative embroidery thread part. Not only did she help me pick the shade of brown and green thread that worked best with it, she also patiently listened to my gripes a bit, as well as consulted with me on what was too much or too little.

In the end, I lightly only embroidered the grass by adding flowers, the trunk of the tree, and the canopy of the tree (as well as adding the features to the rabbit). I think this really worked for the piece in two ways. By only lightly embroidering it, I avoided it from getting too busy and thereby distracting the eye away from the rabbit, the central part. But also, the parts I embroidered make a bit of a C shape, focused on the left side of the piece, and so the non-embroidered part on the right kind of balances it all out. Can I type embroidered enough? I dunno.

I hope the recipient of this likes looking at it as much as I made it. Fingers crossed.

For my next piece, I texted a good friend of mine asking them what their favorite American Animal was. I was hoping they'd say "Bear." I was expecting them to say "Bear." They said either "A bald eagle, a mountain lion, or a combination of the two, the Patriotic Bald Gryphon." Sooo . . . I don't know what I'm gonna do. You guys ever look at eagles or giant cats? Those guys have hard to capture personalities and I'm not that good at any kind of art. They don't know they're getting anything yet, so it's gonna be a bit of a surprise, but I'm thinking of leaning towards a Bald Gryphon, just because if I'm gonna mess up, I'm gonna shoot for the moon.