Pewter Vase

The name really doesn’t convey the richness of this project.

As I reread the opening sentence I realize the depth of truth that is conveyed in such a simple phrase.

A very long time ago when I was a YUPPY  DINK I bought this crewel kit while on an annual trip to Cape May for Victorian Weekend. I started working on it and was quite pleased with my work so I don’t remember why I put is aside.

Years later I bought a scroll frame because the size of the work no longer fit in the embroidery hoop and I was again very happy with the project until something interrupted me.

Last year I was hired to teach a class called Clothing. When I looked up the standards I realized that there was a high degree of latitude so I created a semester long syllabus that required students to follow a pattern, alter something, mend something and design something original. I stipulated that it had to be textile based, but would accept any needle art that interested them including, but not limited to hand and machine sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet.

I brought to school samples of each technique and used them as exemplars for my students to handle and examine. Many were incomplete which made them less intimidating. When students lamented that their work was not as neat as mine I pointed out that they were in CLOTHING I. with only a few weeks of practice and they were comparing themselves to projects that reflected decades of practice.

We talked about frogging. When you are unsatisfied with your work so you rip out stitches with the mantra “rip-it, rip-it, rip-it….” Frogging is a great explanation of the quote “The master has failed more often than the novice has tried.”

As the year progressed and I worked with students on their projects I began to feel the need to complete my own unfinished projects.

This is the first of my many unfinished projects that I tackled and have successfully completed this summer. I was very pleased with the wool yarn and the variety of stitches called for to render the flowers. In contrast the cotton floss in a long and short stitch for the urn did not stand up to the rich texture of the flowers and I had to frog it using tiny scissors, 2.0 reading glasses and a tiny tweezer to be certain to get all of the silvery cotton floss without compromising any of the wool yarn!  I was introduced to a silk yarn by the mother and daughter team who run Beyond Knits and Needles in Caldwell NJ. There was a sample of chain stitching in the same yarn which I liked so I redid the Pewter Vase using a silvery grey silk  yarn.

To complete my project I wanted to add my signature somewhere hidden among the flowers. I tried several placements using various stitches but was unsatisfied. I finally took out the light grey cotton floss that had come with the kit and worked parallel to the blue line using a single ply in a backstitch across the bottom.

I’ve dropped it off to be framed and have already finished my next project, but that story will wait for another day!