Suze's Landscape

My friend Suze's landscape has been nesting at my house for waaaayyyy! too long. Well after lots of very slow progress I finally got it finished amid trying to get my Christmas gifts crocheted, ferrying kids around, two trips over the holidays, family time and work.

All in all I really love the way this is looking. I made several additions. First I decided that there needed to be more trees so I used Suze's photo and added trees lining the road. I used a lazy daisey stitch to make them. Then I decided to put something in that georgous blue pot in the foreground. After some research on Italian gardens I decided on red geraniums. I used pearl cotton in two colors to give a bit more contrast. They were made using a French knot. I made the leaves out of silk ribbon and did the stems in DMC cotton using a stem stitch. I decided the background needed more so I made some rows on the left in a green DMC that were similar to the ones made on the right in the fields in an earlier round. The piece then rested for some time while I was trying to decide what else it needed. I finally realized the trees I had made had trunks in the photo so I added those. It was a small thing, but I really like how they really came more to life.

Here are the photos of the piece with my additions. I sure hope that Suze likes what I did. First the whole piece with my additions. This time the photo is upright.

 Here are the flowers in the pot.

 Here is the left side with the row of trees I added and the green lines along the field suggesting some sort of crop.

 I am looking forward to seeing how Suze finishes this off. Everyone that worked on it did some beautiful things with it.