Happy 4th!

This tulip reminds my of the stripes on our flag

Happy Fourth of July!  I hope you have celebratory plans today.  It's gorgeous weather here today, and we're heading to a picnic this afternoon.  I'm looking forward to good company and great food.

I've also had a chance to do a bit of leisure art.  I'm happy to report I've finished one of the needlepoint Christmas ornaments for my children. Here's a sneak peek:

Not hard to guess what this one's about....

I really wanted to go to my studio, but I've been away so long that I decided my best bet was to pick up a piece I don't have a strong attachment to; in fact, I don't like it very much.  I figured I couldn't make it any worse, and I'd get some quilting practice in as well.  After a few hours, my quilting was mostly invisible and the piece hadn't improved. (Okay, it hadn't gotten worse either.)

Boring, boring, boring.  So I painted over the quilting.

Much better.... except the composition really needs to be cropped.  What do you think of this?

Personally, I like this closer cropping.  It's still not a compelling piece, but at least it's a bit more interesting.  While the paint dries I'll think about what to do next.  Any suggestions?  I feel like it needs a few splashes of orange somewhere, but I haven't figured that out yet.  If nothing else, this has already served me well as a practice piece.