Anatomical artwork

Of all the organs I have stitched so far, the lungs may be my favorite. Being asymmetrical, the pattern was tricky, and I got off on the wrong foot by incorrectly counting the stitches for the vasculature in the left lung. This meant that toward the end of the process, I had to make up some of the design, in order to make up for misplaced or excess stitches. Thankfully, the asymmetry means that it's not noticeable!

The uterus was an even more difficult pattern than the lungs, due to the fact that it called for about 2 dozen colors of floss, most of them variations on pink or red. I tried my best to match the required colors, but changing out my needle and thread for 5 stitches, and 1 stitch there proved to be very difficult. Sometimes I gave up, and I don't think you can notice the difference.

For fabric I used a piece of canvas that had once belonged to an elderly neighbor, now passed away. She had stitched a while flower with a yellow center and a purple butterfly. The flower is a little smudged, which might be why she abandoned the project. I decided its imperfections were part of its charm and added flowers, a heart, a ribbon, and confetti to enliven the design.

Both pieces have gone to live with friends or friends of friends in exchange for donations to the Birmingham Free Clinic. I have patterns for a brain and for various bacterial pathogens that should keep me busy over the next academic year.