Idaho Christmas
When I finally picked a needle up again in April, I decided to stitch something small, quick-to-stitch, and for which I had all the supplies. At an EGA meeting at the end of 1998, we were given a kitted chart for a Christmas ornament. I pulled that out of my stash and was able to complete the stitching in one sitting. That was a very satisfying re-entry.
Doris
Our EGA chapter did a year-long project to teach some of us needlepoint techniques. Working on a canvas instead of ground cloth was all new to me, as were the stitches. I totally enjoyed learning the stitches, but I don't much care for working on canvas.
This piece is divided into 13 octagons, each with a different stitch pattern. I used one shade of cotton floss and one shade of rayon fiber in each octagon. The center octagon is stitched with silk and a silver stranded metallic.
I believe I still have this finished piece in my stash. I never did get around to framing it or getting it ready for display.
Thoughts of You Nametag
When I look at this piece, my breath gets caught in my throat a little. I worked on it while sitting vigil at my dad's bedside in the hospital. So though I started it in February, I didn't finish it until May. This is a nametag I made for my EGA secret sister.
The chart was a freebie on the Victoria Sampler website. This was a trial project for me to see if I had any interest in making samplers. Ummm ... I guess not because I've stitched precious few of them. I did learn the Queen Stitch (the hearts), and the four-sided stitch. This sampler also has herringbone and Smyrna cross. This is stitched on linen and I used a variegated floss for the hearts so that they go from dark to light pink. I also stitched with a new-to-me fiber, some gold metallic Balgar cord by Kreinik.
Giraffe Shotput
This shotput is a small 6-inch square pillow filled with 2-1/2 pounds of buckshot. It's quite heavy for its size. It's used the way a paperweight is. But instead of holding papers down on a tabletop, a shotput is propped on top of your stitching hoop or frame to hold a corner of the stitching down on a table's edge while the greater part of the frame can hang over the edge of the table. This allows you to stitch with one hand above your work and the other hand below, making stitching quicker. A shotput is great for traveling because it's more compact than floor or lap stands.
The giraffe chart I used is a from the March 1998 edition of The Stitchery Magazine. I picked it because giraffes were my mom's favorite animal to watch when we went to the zoo. My mom had died about a year-and-a-half before I stitched this, and I did it in her memory. It turned out to be the first of many, many giraffe designs I've stitched over the years.
I love her long eyelashes.
Columbine Healing Quilt Square
The Columbine Healing Quilt came into being as a response to the terrible shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. The leader of this project hoped to gather 1,000 quilt blocks and make them into a gigantic quilt to present to the students of Columbine High School.
I picked this design because I wanted to stitch a symbol of peace. Thus, the lion and the lamb. I loved this particular piece because the lion is holding the lamb, and standing with an angel. The three are singing their lungs out. I relish that image since I am a vocalist.
The chart is called Christmas Pillow by Mary Engelbreit. It's stitch on an evenweave ground cloth with cotton floss. The strings of the harp are stitched with a gold metallic. If you look at a portion of the Columbine Healing Quilt in this link, you can see my square in the bottom row, third 9-patch block, center square.
Gosh. Can you imagine how many quilt squares I'd have stitched by now if we made quilts for every school shooting we've had since Columbine? It hurts my heart to think of it. I wonder, now, if quilts are being made ... or have school shootings happened so often that they no longer jolt us into action the way Columbine did.
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