Expect Good Things

I won't lie.  The past couple years have been....well.....difficult.   An extremely stressful job combinded with chronic pain issues resulted in the decision to take an early retirement.  That decision resulted in having to sell the house in a short sale--which, by the way has to be the most frustrating and degrading process I have ever been through--which meant cleaning out, packing and moving. 
So in the past two years I've hit several major stressers in life.
I won't lie.  It has been a pretty rocky road, however, the house is gone, we've moved up north and I'm working with a new pain doctor.  So, while I'm still recovering, I am able to look at things in life with a little brighter outlook and with a bit more hope for the future.
Well, that was a very long introduction to the rug I finished right before Christmas. It is called "Expect Good Things" and the pattern is by Brenda Beerhorst.  I first saw this pattern on Brenda's website, Kinship in Wool and Color, and fell in love with it.  I loved the sweet little birds and I expecially loved the message--that good things--small or large--will always come your way. 

Anyway, a few years back I started working on this rug.  My first decision--should I make the birds robins or blue birds?  I love robins.  They are the first sign of spring and they are always a most welcome sight after our long, grey winters. But blue birds.....well really....who can resist blue birds.  Certainly not me!  And so blue birds it was.

Next, came the color selection.  I have no art background, so while I am doing my best to learn more about color theory, I pretty much have to fly by the seat of my pants in this area.  I did know I wanted my birds to have a more turquoise feel to them rather than a baby blue.  So I picked out a piece of over-dyed wool in a light aqua and found a lovely piece of a very dark turqoise that I used for an accent color throughout the rug. 
Now for the other colors.  I'm trying really hard to be bolder in my color selection.  Because I'm not sure of myself, I tend to pick more boring muted colors and, as a result I feel that my rugs were looking bland and muddy.  I was determined that was not going to happen this time.  I knew that to really make things pop you should use a color's complement--in this case the complementary color to blue is orange.  Hmmm.....orange.  Not my favorite color, but I found some orangey-red wools that I really liked and went for it.

I found and dyed some wools for the leaves in a range of green/blues.  And my background wool was this really neat brown/black plaid with small strips of blue running through it.  It was perfect in that it just tied everything together.

As I said, I've worked on this rug for the past few years.  Sometimes I was possessed and worked on it every waking minute.  Sometimes life just got in the way and it sat neglected in the corner of the living room.  When we were selling the house and moving, it had to be packed away and I couldn't even think about it.  I worked on it when I was happy and when I was sad and depressed.  I worked on it when was in pain.  I guess, you could say that there is a lot of my life hooked into this rug. 
Right now it is hanging on the wall in my living room.  I love the bright, rich colors, especially in the midst of our grey Michigan winter. I love the sweet little birds. And, most of all,  I love its hopeful and warm message.