Blackwork

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I love collecting knick knacks. Little boxes, bottles, interesting cartons….et. al, When I discovered a book on blackwork in the local library I was so smitten by it. I just made one of a lady and one of a little girl watering her plant. While making this project I found a little box which I thought I would embellish. Once I finished the project I thought that I should not use it on the box but to crochet a border and frame it. I crocheted a row and was soon I was busy with several other things, one of them was moving from the country, that slowly it began languishing in my craft cupboard. I don’t remember what happened to the little box. When I was clearing my stuff in the cupboard I chanced upon this long lost little girl in black and with it came all the memories of long ago. To this day I haven’t found another interesting pattern in blackwork. So here it is.

 

I hope to unearth some more projects soon.:)

From Matty to Aida …..

The one thing I don’t enjoy doing is sending out handmade greeting cards. There are two reasons for this. One, even though I send cards only to those who appreciate hand-made stuff, my mind gets gnawed with doubts such as what if by chance they (recipient) throw it away.

Two, I hate parting with my stuff. (Should this have been number one) The number of people I send handmade stuff is thankfully few in number. So I thank God for small mercies.

There was so much to cross stitch that I didn’t know about when I was in school. There was something called “Matty” cloth available in the market. They were available only in white, pink, yellow, light green and light blue. With this limited color choice, we used to buy a couple of meters of one of the colors depending on the project we are working on. Mostly it would be a table cloth and occasionally a Television cover, (for the uninitiated, the TV cover helped prevent dust settling on the screen) and one would stitch the border and a flower bouquet in the center. This was a very common pattern made in most homes.

If the design came out really well, these tablecloths used to adorn the dining tables during a party at home or when people visited. The cross stitched piece would be laid out neatly on the table and duly covered with clear plastic, lest eatables or drinks get spilt. There were also horror stories like the one my friend retold.

My friend who is a cross stitch enthusiast once had laid out her table cloth and had gone to bring the plastic to cover it. Before she could bring it down, a guest kept her glass of juice and it got spilt. My friend was devastated. This spoilt table cloth had to go for a wash. What came out of the washer was a disaster she had never imagined. This “Matty” cloth has a tendency to shrink. Now, not only did the piece shrink to a much smaller size than the table it was made for, but the color of all the threads ran so much that the color of the table cloth changed drastically. From that day she never laid out her table cloths and it was the last time my friend worked on a table cloth.

Recently, after discovering the different kinds of Aida and other cross stitch materials in the U.S. market, she began working on small projects like photo frames etc.,

I don’t remember where my matty cloth T.V cover went, but thankfully I don’t remember having a disaster like that. Here are a few of my Aida projects. I am seriously looking for my lost TV cover which I hope to present in my blog along with another Aida work. 

The above are small items I made, a few for making greeting cards, but I never got around to making them and sending them to people. The other two are bookmarks which I rarely use, but take them out from time to time and admire my own handiwork. 

 

Blackwork

One thing I loved about living in the U.S. was visiting the libraries. Each county had a library and an amazing collection of books and magazines. I would spend hours sifting through books and magazines making notes, taking copies and yet it seemed to me that I did not to have enough.

The books on different crafts were also amazing finds for me. Earlier, in school, we used to do cross stitch with different colored threads. Then we used to frame if it was a big picture, if it was a small square we would stick it to a card and send it to someone… or sadly in some cases it will wilt and wither in people’s craft nooks.

So when I chanced upon this book on blackwork cross-stitch, I was struck by how beautiful a work could look even if you used only one color thread. I borrowed this book the maximum number of times (thankfully nobody seemed to want it and I didn’t want to photo copy the pattern)

I began the work in earnest on 14-count aida. Surprisingly, I completed the work within three months which is a record by my standards.  

 Not a great photo. 

However, unlike my other projects, especially crochet which gets more attention, this project languished in my craft pile. One day when I was organizing my cupboard I came across this finished project and wondered why I hadn’t framed it earlier.

Anyway, for those of you interested in making a blackwork picture, there are tons of patterns in the internet. It is not necessary one has to work with black thread throughout like the name suggests. One can use any single color of their choice. You can even try stitching in white on a dark fabric.