Birds Cross-Stitch

Day 9: There was more than one time during the stitching of this piece that I thought I'd never get it completed, although none so intense as when I started. I began with the birds and round nest in the center and had placed fewer than a hundred stitches and discovered that I could not tell where I'd put a half-stitch using one thread of light yellow and where I needed to put a full cross using two strands of the identical colour. I had had to have the pattern enlarged in order to distinguish the colour codes, but that didn't help as much as I'd hoped. Working the piece on 18-count fabric further complicated matters, and after a couple of weeks at that first nest, I laid it aside and moved on to other projects. Unfinished works have a way of nagging at my subconscious, though, and when I found myself needing a project I could lay down quickly so that I could attend a mischievous kitten, I said, "Eh, I might as well work on the birds." Toward the end of the first nest, I realized that I needed to work all the full crosses of any given colour first. That way, there was no possibility that I'd cross a half-cross unintentionally. I chided myself for not thinking of that earlier, and from there, the work proceeded more quickly than anticipated. I still had trouble reading the pattern...black n and dark blue n were horrendously difficult to tell apart!...but soon, I had the nest and the house immediately above it done. Then I moved on to the birch house in the upper right...the one topped by a "haystack"...thinking to get one of the hardest bits over with before my patience ran out. Oddly enough, it went quickly. Once I really settled in to working on the embroidery, each nest and its birds took roughly 3-5 days to finish. The frame was delivered yesterday. I hung the piece above my desk, one of few pieces of stitchery I've kept for myself.

One Bird To Go

Day 362: When I started this piece, I honestly wasn't sure I was going to be able to complete it. My vision is no worse than it was a couple of years ago, but it has always been poor even with glasses. I had a friend enlarge the pattern, but even that wasn't much help because the kit dated back to when patterns were only printed in three colours (black, red and blue). The canvas is 18-count Aida, and lemme tell ya, even if it was 11-count, it's not easy to split four threads seven way when you're doing backstitch, and damn near impossible on anything finer. That's what you get when you have computer-generated patterns with no relation to the physical impossibility of performing a task. That said, I have one bird and its nest to go, and then this piece will be ready for framing. It is the last of several kits which were passed along to me by a friend about eight years ago, and the only one I have kept for myself.

Screen Change

Day 328: It's time to change screens again, which is to say the embroidery hoop has to be moved to a fresh section of canvas so I can work on the next part of the design. As arthritis makes holding a hoop more painful as I age, I seldom use one larger than seven inches. I've tried various types of stand, but all of them have one major drawback in that it is never easy to change colours. When you're working on something as detailed as this, you have to do that a lot. With a hand-held hoop, it's simply a matter of flipping it over, finishing off the current colour and attaching a new one. With a stand, you have to remove it from whatever type of clamp holds the hoop or alternately, loosen the clamp, reverse the work, add the new colour, turn the work rightside-up again and then retighten the mechanism. Or I suppose you could get out of your chair, get down on your knees and approach the solution from the underside if you were truly a glutton for punishment. None of these methods works for me. With the advent of computer-generated patterns, colour changes after three or four stitches are more common (sometimes they will be the only stitches of that colour in the design), but on several occasions, a kit has shown only one stitch...one lousy stitch!...of a different colour. Yep, it's times like those that I much prefer a hand-held hoop. And no, using an established colour instead is not something I would ever consider. Another thing: I'd like to take a sledgehammer to whatever program tells you to do backstitch in black over black cross-stitches. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, not give us more nonessential work to do.

Cross-Stitch Kit

Day 313: Ages ago, a senior friend who was downsizing her crafts stash invited me to take anything I thought I could use. Among the items I selected were several cross-stitch kits, which by now must surely qualify as "vintage," having come down through her hands so far back that she couldn't recall where or when she had purchased them. Most of us crafty types have a few of those hanging around in our closets and trunks, even me. Most of what I took from her has either been worked or passed on, but I had saved this one back "for special." It consists of twelve individual motifs of birds, most in nests or nesting boxes, with two in flight, and is worked on 18-count Aida. The pattern is printed in three colours: black, red and blue. It is very difficult to read in the original, so I had each motif enlarged. Even so, the detail is so fine that I occasionally miss a stitch and have to add it when I notice its absence, an oversight which may cause problems later on if I run short of a colour. That's why I seldom work on kits. The manufacturers seldom seem to take into account that each missed stitch will have a "tail" at either end, consuming more thread than they may have included. Nor do they allow for errors, but thankfully, I make very few of those, or catch them early enough that I can salvage the thread without too much wear on it as it is withdrawn from the canvas. At least with individual motifs, if I run short of a certain colour, I'll be able to substitute something I have on hand, although in this case, not all the threads can be approximated with DMC. A certain amount of thinking ahead is needed here.

Leftovers

Day 43: You may recall from a post I made two weeks ago that I was worried I was going to run out of one of the purples in a counted cross-stitch kit, and that I expressed a negative opinion of kits in general due to the fact that many of them seem to always run short of one or more colours. I have only one four-inch line of backstitch to do before the piece is complete, so I have brought together all the leftovers to make my point. What you see in the background in this photo is the excess, colours for which the company supplied an overabundance. In the foreground, however, the needle holds the very last fragment of purple #14223 which predictably does not match any of the standard brands of embroidery floss on the market. That said, it was enough for all the charted stitches, if only barely. If I'd had to make one more backstitch, I'd have needed to unthread and rethread the needle to get it through the canvas. Surfeit and shortage! The incongruity boggles my mind.

Cross-stitch Cross-eyed

Day 30: Some time ago, a friend was clearing out her project stash and asked me if I could use any of the kits she was preparing to take to a thrift shop. I don't generally like to work from kits for several reasons, but the primary one is that they are invariably short on one or more colours. This factor aside, even the most experienced and skilled needleworker can make mistakes. As far as I am concerned, mistakes are not allowed. If they are noticed, they must be picked back and replaced with the correct stitches. When picking back, it's not always possible to salvage the thread. If you're already working with a kit which is short on one colour, this can be disastrous, especially if the kit has been manufactured using custom colours (and many of them are). Nevertheless, I accepted my friend's offer of her discards and brought home several which I thought would make nice gifts for specific friends. They've sat on the shelf for six or seven years now, so I figured it was time to get at least one of them out of the way. I've been pecking away at this one for several months now, and yes, I've hit the dreaded Kit Shortage in a colour which can't be matched in DMC. I think I will have enough to complete the project, but I am down to saving every two-inch long "tail." The irony is that while I may run out of dark purple, I am going to wind up with an overage of at least a dozen strands of cream!

The Goal Of Life

Day 242: The Chickens have been sitting on top of my drier for months now, finished and ready to frame, but I was undecided on how I wanted to mount the piece. My needlecrafts often don't fit a standard frame, and in the past, I've used a variety of ways to make them hangable, including sewn cloth borders with rod pockets or tabs, or sometimes buying an old frame at a thrift store and cutting it down to size. I specifically wanted a rustic look for the Chickens, but since thrift-store shopping is out of the question these days, I chose to go with wood I had on hand, i.e., a couple of lengths of plaster lath turned on edge and carefully, oh so very carefully, nailed together at the corners with fine brads (I drilled the holes first to prevent the wood from splitting). Once the shadow-box was complete, I glued in a line of garden twine set back 3/8" from the front to serve as a retainer. The mounted needlework was popped in from the back and secured in place with a piece of cardboard. Then I added a hanging cord and bingo! The Chickens were ready to put on the wall.

One Chicken Done

Day 113: By request, and because I am really struggling for both material and inspiration. 

Although I'm using the design elements for a sampler, the pattern for the "Mexican Chickens Tea Cozy" appeared in "Buttermilk Biscuits," published in 1981 by The Vanessa-Ann Collection. It is the only pattern I have ever used from the booklet, but I have made it at least half a dozen times on various fabric counts. For this version, I'm working on 18-count oatmeal Aida using two strands of floss for the cross-stitch and one strand for the backstitch in order to get good coverage of the canvas. The second chicken is roughly one-third complete. A border of golden chicken-wire will surround them and the verse, "The goal of Life is living in agreement with Nature," the dictum which frames my existence as quoted from the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium. I have not yet decided how the piece will be mounted.

Age And Infirmity

Day 112: There's no dodging it. I'm not getting any younger, and these last two years have made me more keenly aware of the fact than I'd care to admit. Idleness and stress are taking their toll on my health and stamina, and although I could still probably drop a fairly large percentage of people half my age on a hike, the old grey mare just ain't what she used to be. Hard truth, but there you have it. Perhaps the most noticeable decline is in my joints. No longer as flexible as they should be, they're getting arthritic and stiff to the point that it's painful to hold an embroidery hoop for any length of time. That said, I flatly refuse to give up the things I enjoy just because it hurts when I do them, but when there is a simple solution available, far be it from me to scorn it. I've eyeballed sit-on embroidery frames for years, but never felt I could justify purchasing one. My left thumb recently convinced me otherwise, and oh, what a relief it is! Now I have both hands free so that I can work cross-stitch in the same manner I'd do needlepoint or quilting, one hand above the piece and one below. As an added benefit, the stress on my shoulders is less as well. The base is not nearly as uncomfortable to secure beneath my legs as I was afraid it would be. In fact, I don't even notice that I'm holding it in place. Like it or not, sometimes accommodations for age and infirmity must be made, but now I'm kicking myself for not making the small investment years earlier.

A Couple Of Cute Chicks

Day 106: Some of you may have been wondering why, given all the other needlecrafts I do, that I have never mentioned counted cross-stitch. The truth is that I used to do a lot of it, and by "a lot," I mean acres of canvas and miles of thread. Lots. As in "tons," perhaps quite literally. My favourite source for patterns was a magazine which is still published today, but bears very little resemblance to its earlier self. As the changeover to "pink and fluffy" occurred along with a greater emphasis on crafts as opposed to needlearts, I dropped my subscription. Eventually, my interest waned as well, and cross-stitch went on the shelf, only to be trotted out when I needed a gift for someone.

Now it must be said that blackwork doesn't qualify as cross-stitch although some stitches are the same in both techniques. However, there is only room in a home for a limited number of blackwork pieces, and I have my two favourites on the wall of the living room. Still, the urge to create something with needle and floss has been nagging me these last few weeks, and these two cute chicks kept popping into my mental vision. I've stitched this pattern at least half a dozen times as the design at the top of a sampler, and seem to recall that I even made one for myself at one point, framed in dark red broadcloth, but where it is now is a mystery. In any event, I'll have to think of an appropriate verse if it's to hang in my kitchen per the plan.