Salvaging an Idea - Bird and Leaves

After screen printing a large image of an iron gate I had the bright idea of adding a free motion embroidered bird and skeletal leaf forms to the image.  After a few days of off and on stitching of these forms, it was time to audition them on the gate image.  Much to my chagrin, the bird was "lost" amid the intricacy of the screen printed image and the leaves cast a ghastly shadow that merely served to make the image seem as if the edges were blurred.  Ach, what a waste of time, I thought; however, as I was placing these stitched figures on a white background to photograph them as documentation of a flop, magic happened.  The bird looks very alive and vibrant against a background of the leaves.

Here is the Bird

Here are the Leaves

Waa laa!  The Bird Comes to Life on the Leaves

and a New Project is Begun