You Can't Win 'Em All - Painted and Stitched Miniature

Well, I stitched and stitched and painted and I'm not happy with the result.   I was content with the way the stitching of the grass, rocks and figures worked out but the sky - yuck!  I somehow muddied the first colours I put on ( not waiting long enough between colours, not using the hair dryer to dry layers, dirty brush, dirty crayons?????) so I tried to fix it by painting over with white then trying again but I still don't like it.  And now my lovely variegated stitching is painted over too.  It was almost impossible to paint around the tiny figures.  I wanted a sunset with a yellow glow and storm clouds mixed in - they were mixed in all right! Now I have abandoned that whole idea.  Ah well, I originally wanted to do a larger piece on this theme so I will consider this a trial run.  I still need to stitch the cross and some of the rocks but I don't think it will improve things.  The mat that's over it right now is just a test mat.  My plan was to mat it with an 8 x10 mat with a 4 x 6 opening.   It does seem to look better from a distance (like in my camera screen).  I guess I'll need to fence it off like the Mona Lisa - Ha ha!