Suzani from Central Asia

I bought this embroidery on eBay, where they called it a Suzani. It is a beautiful central flower with vines coming off it. I have not tested the backing or the fibers, but I think it is silk on cotton. There are two stitches used in the embroidery, chain stitch and packed back stitch, done by hand. I don't think it is newly made, there is some fading in the color between the front and the back.



It hangs in a protected corner of my office; I don't want it to fade any more. It's not symmetrical, more of the flowers in the top half are trimmed with yellow, in the bottom half more are trimmed with blue/green. It is a very elegant textile.

I had a couple of days off of work this week, and had a wonderful time. I went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with my family. The gardens are breathtaking. I took tons of pictures, they don't do justice to the gorgeous views around every corner. I'm just including a couple of my favorites. There was a display of bonsai in one of the courtyards. They were amazing. This tree is so perfectly proportioned you would think it was hundreds of feet tall without the person (my dad) included for perspective.




This is a walkway between the rose garden and the English gardens. The kids (my grandkids) aren't very far away, but between such towering trees they look so tiny!



Nothing in the gardens is a "happy accident." Everything is planned and refined... and beautiful! I'm hoping to go back, since we saw a very small section.

I'm happy to announce that my granddaughter was able to take "Isabella" home with her. Isabella was staying with grandma until her new owner could be a "big girl" and that happy event was this past week. This is a picture of Isabella coming out of the box. C got to play with her every time she visited grandma, but now she got to take her home. C. is having a wonderful time with her.



Grandma is having fun making doll clothes. Stay tuned for pictures!

Cambodia Batik

This batik looks a lot more traditional to me than the map batik from last time. From what I can tell by looking at it, I think the resist was used first, then the light blue, red, and green were painted on, those colors were covered with the resist, and then it was over-dyed in the dark blue, and then the green/gold was painted on over the top.



There are so many details that I like about this piece. I like the fish on the side of the basin, symbol of Christianity. I like the fact that Peter's foot seems to be "walking" on the water (not immersed in it). I like the colors, and the plaid towel, and I like the legs of the chair where you can tell the artist had a hard time making up his mind how long to make them.

We had a lovely weekend. We had a birthday lunch for Parker. His sister is getting a little put out that he has had 3 birthday parties in a row, and she hasn't had any yet. This is a picture of them at the zoo in Michigan City, in a tunnel that goes under the otter pool. Life is just so full of wonderful things!



After the birthday party, our daughter took us out to Soul Restaurant, and treated us to supper! She is so proud, because her firm did the decorating. It is a lovely place, the food is excellent, and of course the company could not have been better. We sat right in this corner. (At one point Jen had to lay out the light fixture on the floor to demonstrate how it actually went together; and she designed the "drum" light fixtures.)



We will be going back there!

Batik map of Indonesia

I know technically batik is not embroidery, but this is a very cool textile. This is a machine made batik. I have seen other copies of the same design, and it is very well thought out and executed.

There are only three colors, the white fabric, a brown/tan dye, and the dark navy dye. I find it very interesting how the white areas show up. Of course, they were the first things covered with the resist, and they are all small areas. All the white lettering is done in dots. There is only one small area (the middle by the right border) where you can see the typical "crackle" pattern you expect from batik. The border is made up of smaller elements that the eye connects together.

The names of the islands are in navy on the white patterns... it takes a lot of planning to keep those areas open so they will take the dye eventually.



This panel was a gift through work. It has been on display for many months and has not faded, as far as I can tell.

Fabric Fruit

Today I am showing off a new purchase that I got in North Carolina. We visited a museum/craft store (here) that had lovely things. There was a lot of glass and pottery, wood and weaving, corn husk and stuffed dolls, and jewelry. Everything was lovely, I could have spent a lot of money! Everything in the store was handcrafted in the "southern highlands." I'm not sure if that included more than North Carolina or not.



I had just decided that I am interested in strawberry pincushions and emeries, and I just ordered a pattern to make fabric fruit, so these guys interested me a lot. They are made out of felted fibers, but they are still soft. The strawberry has "seed beads" (LOL). I love fidgeting with them, but I'm afraid if I handle them too much they will deteriorate.

Update on French Style monochromatic Sampler

The book I got all the patterns from for the French sampler (except the heart) is Sajou Passion des Alphabets Anciens (Sajou, love of ancient alphabets), by Veronique Malliard. It is a beautiful book! What text there is is in French, but the patterns are lovely.

French Style monochromatic sampler

Hello everyone,

It's not very nice of me to start blogging, and then go away for a long weekend! I was in North Carolina over the weekend; I couldn't believe how beautiful it is there! I'm going to do everything in my power to go back there for another visit. (Shopping was good too!)

Our example today is a piece I stitched for the EGA Master Craftsman program. The requirements were to stitch a piece in an authentic ethnic style, with certain requirements for size, stitch count, and design elements. (I sent it in and got a provisional pass. The back is too messy, but I'm not going to show you that.)

Since I have a French last name (no fault of my own, it came with DH), I decided to design a French sampler, and commemorate our 30th anniversary as well. I got most of the elements from the same book, that I cannot remember the name of right now. I will post the name tomorrow. I measured, counted, sketched, and moved items around in order to get things to fit. I really like the border, and I love the cartouche the date is stitched in. The initials are in such a pretty alphabet too!



As I recall, the heart came from somewhere else.

I have enjoyed collecting French cross stitch alphabets since I got on-line, and I was very happy to use a couple of those elements in this sampler. (I like fonts too!)

I would love to decorate our bedroom in French country style and have this in a prominent spot. I think it would be a very pretty room. Red toile wall-paper, red carpet, and French country furniture. I'll just keep on dreaming.

American Sampler

I stitched this sampler in 1994 from a pattern by Orton in the short-lived Treasures in Needlework magazine.




It is in the style of some of the school-girl samplers taking elements from many of them.

This piece was wonderful to stitch. There is regular cross stitch, and cross stitch over one. There is rice stitch, satin stitch, queen stitch (a Lot of queen stitch!), and a touch of bargello. One of my favorite parts is the background stitch. The dark green behind the flowers and the light green yard are alternating half stitch. You cannot see the stitches, but it gives an over-all color. The white area behind the lettering is running stitch, again, letting the ground fabric show through.

The fabric is natural linen, and the stitching was done with silk floss. This was my first experience with silk. In my opinion it doesn't make a lot of difference in looking at the finished piece, but it is wonderful to work with.