August IHSW Report, Part II

As I explained in my previous post ... August IHSW Report, Part I ... I am doing my IHSW report in two parts this month.  You may have wondered why two parts.  Well, I just think this third project I chose to stitch this weekend needed a post of its own.

Let me start off by saying how much I like primitive designs.  I enjoy several different stitching styles but primitive is at the top of the list.  I enjoy stitching like our grandmothers or great grandmothers may have stitched when they were little girls.  I love having the feel of the past around me.  I think it was, for the most part, a better time.

Stitching primitives, however, is sometimes difficult for me.  I am an OCD perfectionist.  I sometimes have a hard time looking at a chart created by a primitive designer who works hard to give us projects that have the look of old stitched pieces.  I discovered that oftentimes a primitive designer will purposely chart a design off center.  This nearly put me in a mental institution the first time I encountered it.  This particular design I am referring to was kind of in 3 parts.  It had a house in the center with some primitive designs around it.  I had completed all the stitching above the house & then began working on the roof of the house.  This is when I noticed that the house was not only off center but the designer had an extra line of bricks on one side!  I froze.  What in the world?  I removed the stitching I had completed on the house at that point & then sat down with the chart in front of me, measuring it & shifting things around so that everything was evenly centered.  It was a large pinkeep project & I remember thinking afterward that I needed to learn to go with the flow of these things.  I told myself that imperfection is what primitives are all about, but let me tell you, it has been a difficult journey for me.

Another thing that has been difficult for me at times on the primitive stitching front is a designer's color choices.  I have stressed over a designer's color choices many times.  I have shared with you before that I have absolutely no color sense whatsoever.  None. I can sit & look at piles of fabric, floss, color swatches, you name it, with a blank stare. All of you who can so easily swap out a designer's suggested color of floss &/or linen for some other choice have my awe-filled admiration.  If I have any pleasing color combinations in my home or clothing, it's no thanks to me.

I understand that sometimes a designer will choose a color or colors in an attempt, I imagine, to make the finished project look worn & faded.  I remember the first time I realized this.  I was stitching a design with 2 sheep on it.  One of the sheep was white. The other sheep was dark gray ... or so it seemed in the model photo.  I don't recall the DMC number suggested for the dark gray sheep, but it had a heavy green cast to it.  I can probably pinpoint this experience as the beginning of my need for anxiety medication. What was the designer thinking?  Was this sheep rolling around in a grassy field all day long?  Was she nauseated after unsuspectingly eating some bad clover in the field?  Was she envying some other sheep?  I just couldn't ... & still can't ... figure out what in the world that designer was aiming for!

Then there is a designer who created a particular snowman design.  I love snowmen. I really looked forward to stitching the design.  The snowman was a large part of it. He was wearing a black hat & a green scarf. I decided to use the WDW/GAST floss which the designer suggested rather than the DMC alternates.  We have probably all noticed the little disclaimer that designers often add when they suggest hand-dyed or over-dyed floss.  It reads something like "This project will not look the same as model if alternates are used."  I wanted this project to have the exact colors as the model photo so I went with the WDWs & GASTs.  All was going well until I started stitching the snowman who by this time I had named Frosty.  Some of you may remember my adventures stitching Frosty.  If you want to weed through my old postings about this project, it begins with my post on January 4, 2012, & continues off & on until the Celebration Cyber Party Invitation issued on February 8.  There are a lot of non-related postings during that time period but the creation of Frosty is chronicled within them.  To sum it up briefly, when stitching this project, I stitched the white floss last as this is what I had been taught to do when I first became interested in cross stitching.  There were areas of Frosty's body, however, that had some green shading. I blamed the green floss used for his scarf. Surely it must have been shedding little tinges of green onto the white floss.  What other explanation was there?  I may have even gone so far as to remove the scarf & stitch with the white first ... I really can't remember ... but for whatever reason, this hand-dyed/over-dyed white floss had some green shading to it.  Surely when the designer saw the finished model she must have noticed that her Frosty looked a little unwell?  I can't imagine that it was just this one skein of this particular brand of white floss that I had purchased that had this green shading in it.  If nothing else, stitching Frosty was & always will be a memorable experience.

Hmmm ... I know there was a particular reason I was writing this post.  Now what was it?  Oh yes, I wanted to show you what I chose to stitch for my third IHSW project & it's progress.  This is a Stacy Nash design which she has named Christmas Goose Pinkeep.  I would like to suggest a name change though.

Frankenstein's Monster's Daughter
Feeds the Geese Pinkeep

Just take a look at that girl's face!  She is green!  Why Stacy, why?  Anyone?  What is it with these green sheep, green snowmen, green goose girls?  The suggested DMC color for Beulah's skin (I've named her Beulah) is 611- Drab Brown.  I don't see any brown.  I see green.  Avocado green.

Incidentally, Beulah has green skin on Stacy's model photo which I hadn't noticed before deciding to stitch it, so apparently it's not a case of old DMC 611 verses new DMC 611. Stacy just wants her to be green for whatever reason.      

I showed Beulah's completed face, neck, & chest area to John when I finished stitching it last night.  He not only immediately noticed the green color of her skin but he brought out another interesting point about this design.  One of the reasons I am stitching it is because I love old English Christmas carols.  Christmas is Coming is one of my favorites.  John took one look at the design & asked ... 

"Why does it say 'the goose is getting fat' but it's showing two geese?  You should change it so that it reads 'the geese are getting fat' or instead just stitch one goose so what it's saying there makes sense."

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  I think I'll just venture on & chalk this up to another memorable experience.

Thus ends Part II of my August IHSW report. Aren't you sorry you came along for the ride : )