Hello,
Today it is all about cross stitching! A while ago Ali gave me a Home Sweet Home chart I had been eye-ing. It is by Dutch Treat. Needless to say their have been lots of changes for me in the last year. So, on New Year's Eve I decided to make my own home as sweet as I could. I got to stitching and I am finished with the lettering and now I am on my way to the flowers and vines.
Of course I would not be a very good cross stitcher if I had only one project to work on. I don't need to tell you how many I have going either. Anyhoo, lets just say it is a healthy amount. The one that I am very excited about is a Blackbird Designs chart that just came out at the last show. It is called Small Tokens: Reward of Merit Pincushion. It is such a sweet piece. Leila, also from my work, is getting hitched and this is my wedding present for her and her beau.
I am changing the colors around to suit the happy event. The bird in on the chart is blue, but I made him even brighter. Because he is the Blue Bird of Happiness -- of course! And the green leaves I am making dark green for Myrtle (traditional plant for newly weds during Victorian times). I want the hearts to be very dark red for lots of sexy fun. The flowers I want to look like Pinks or Sweet Williams a traditional love token during the middle ages. I am still figuring out the color for the star motif.
At first I was going to replace the words with their names, but now I am not so sure. I think that they go together like: Needles and Pins, Apples and Pears, Flowers and Chocolates. I'll get the names in somehow just not at the expense of my Bread and Butter, Cheese and Crackers... well you get it, they are one cute couple.
It is special to me that the stitching gift will be
cut from the same cloth, as it were, as my Home Sweet Home. This way part of my Sweet will spill over into the gift.
I might have taken the iconography lessons a little to seriously (art history humor). However, this really is the type of thing I think of as I stitch. While my hands work I ponder how things and people are linked in such interesting ways. How the literal fabric in our lives makes some memories so close. This is part of the reason I love doing textile repairs and restoration. I feel the importance of the memories even if they are not mine. The stories of the women who made the gifts and care for the for them are at the heart of my work.
When I work on my Home Sweet Home I remember Ali who gave it to me (for no particular reason - just kindness). I think of all the Victorian women who worked on mottos like this. I feel a connectedness to them and to women who stitch/create beauty for their homes now. Anyway, I hope this thought is not so strange. I like to think that other women feel the link with the women of the past and those who stitchers now.
Bye for now,
Mary Elizabeth
