Emerging personal petroglyphs

My petroglyph people, under construction.
Painted, stamped, embroidered by Sherrie Spangler

A few days ago, I decided I needed to work on something that reminded me of the desert. (Too much rain going on here.) I also wanted to use the luscious lemon and lime embroidery threads that had just arrived from Artfabrik.

So I pulled out the piece of fabric below that I had painted years ago in soft greens, turquoise, rose and lavender -- the desert in spring. A few months ago, I stamped it with some petroglyph figures that I had carved out of a foam food tray. Then I sponged on some shimmery gold spirals and squares. Then it went back in the bin because I couldn't decide what to do next.

Here you can see the beginning of the embroidery.

Well, now is its time to shine! The little figures were ready to emerge with help from some bright perle cotton thread. I started by outlining each with a green chain stitch, then further defined the main figure with a rusty stem stitch. I tried working with an embroidery hoop, but ditched that after about 10 minutes. Below, I'm adding a lavender blanket stitch to start the necklace.

A stem stitch also brings out my mystery animal:

Yellowy-gold feather stitches turned into hair:

It's coming along nicely now, but I still have to decide on the eyes. The eyes can make or break people, even if they are only embroidered petro people.

Lastly, here's why I'm spending so much time inside doing handwork:

Have a more colorful day