Hopes and Dreams 4

Got the lettering done. Not real wild about it but I'll let it stay. It is readable even by my husband. I shortened 'hopes' to just 'hope' because I couldn't get the other 2 letters to come out. Note to self--practice more lettering at least with strips rather than yarn or fleece. Redid stars 6 and 7 and reversed the colors. Filled in around the banner parts with the dark plaid. IF i do this sort of banner again used a light mottled cream or white or shades of white to make it less boring and solid colored. I added a blue and purple spiral up above stars 6 through 8 and will do a matching spiral on the other side and maybe something on each side of the bottom part around the basket. You can see the spiral better in person than in the wide shots of the basket. I've include a closeup of it.



I keep wondering if I should have done this in fleece instead or yarn. The shading would have been better and more realistic. I feel like this rather a plain looking piece at least for me. I have very mixed feelings about it. I really have to work more on doing shading with strips and getting a wider range of dyed fabrics to work with. What I think is going to work doesn't seem to be at least the way I want it to. It is going rather quickly because of the size of the #6 strips but I think this would have been better done traditional and with smaller strips. I don't think any larger would have worked at all unless I did it all primitive style and left off or moved the lettering elsewhere like above and around the basket or maybe in the outer border. Maybe I should have done the hearts all in shades of reds instead of the pinks and blues I used? I can see a couple of primitive color pallets for this piece. I can also see it in patriotic colors of red, white and blue and turning the banner into a flag.

Anyone got any opinions on how this looks? I'm very unsure about this piece.