Harder than I thought it'd be . . .

In June, I gave Chris a quilt for our 5-year wedding anniversary. I was rushing to get it finished by our actual anniversary date and so I told myself that it was perfectly fine if I didn't put the finishing touch on before giving it to him. I thought I could do it over our anniversary weekend while we were hanging out together. Well, that time came and went more than 7 weeks ago and so this past weekend I finally set out to embroider the little commemorative applique that I had planned for the back of the quilt.

But, of course, it's more of a challenge than I had anticipated.

The pink fabric is a piece of taffeta leftover from our girls' dresses and men's ties. I'm using the green/lime Joel Dewberry woodgrain fabric as an homage to the fact that the 5th anniversary is traditionally celebrated by a wooden gift. I'm planning to applique the pink fabric in the shape of a heart onto the green fabric which will act as a kind of frame. My vision is for it to be like those cute little hearts that are carved into trees with a young and in-love couple's initials. But it's not turning out too well.

I'm not very happy with how the embroidered dates and initials turned out. I'm trying to decide if I should start over or let it have this "rustic" feel to the lettering. 

Lots to ponder. I was hoping to finish it up before the weekend.