Day 1 . . Sampler Stitching Starts

What can I say ?

After two,

or has it been three,

days,

my eyes have paid

for looking through the Mag Eyes

(pushed up on top of my  head)

and forming 208 squares.

[You know,

I never realize how much I look like Lee

until I see a picture of me when my eyes are tired.

In this picture

I can see that I was more tired than I thought.

Look at the dark circle under my left eye.

Mom always said when I was tired or getting sick

the circles got darker.

Sometimes,

they go completely under my eye

from nose to temple.]

Yes,

I said

two hundred eight squares!

Not the 100 squares

as suggested

but 208.

I figured

"Might as well

 fill the cloth with squares

and then,

as I work,

 decide what to put in them

and where the designs will go."

If I have,

no if . .

WHEN

I have empty squares left over

I will either
1. leave them empty as is

2. remove the running stitch to remove he squares or,

 this is what I think I want to do

3. leave the ones close to the designs intact and make the rest gradually disappear.

Now the question is:

"Can I make the outside of the design

that I see in my Mind's Eye

actually come to pass?"

  That,

as they say,

 is the $64,000 Question.

I spent most of the morning

working on the drawing

for my

Tree of Life.

All the time Io am working on it

I keep hearing Teri tell her art classes,

"Start at the tip of the branch

and bring the branch to the base."

If you look at little kids tree drawings,

they always seem to be a fat rectangle with a circle on top.

Not the full canopy

with a trunk

smaller in comparison.

So, as I sketched,

I followed her directions.

Then,

went back and outlined what I had drawn

so it could be converted to a

Cross Stitch diagram.

I must admit,

I was pretty proud that the drawing looked as good as it did

and that I was interpreting it accurately.

The small stitches

make it look so smooth.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed working on the

"linen-like" fabrics.

Then, when I wold look at it,

with the hoop removed,

I realized

it hadn't turned out as big

as I had originally planned.

To do that,

I would have needed to:

1. make a pattern twice as big as I did

or

2. make each stitch over 4 squares instead of 1 square.

Since I like the "X over 1 square" look

I decided it could stay the way it looked.

I would try to make the "leaf canopy" larger.

The larger canopy

would give the sampler

more of an

"authentic sampler"

look . . . and I do LOVE my samplers . . .

as you can tell from this picture

of one of my living room walls.

Cross Stitch was my P-A-S-S-I-O-N

for so many years,

until the eyes finally gave out.

Today,

while stitching,

I thought that perhaps

this is the beginning of

going back to that time.

Fingers crossed . .

I hope so.

So now,

it's CANOPY time . . .

sketch it out

try to count and stitch at the same time . . .

I know I am not counting perfect,

(please don't check my tree drawing with my stitch count?

There are WAY to many errors . .

keep in mind the Persian carpet weavers, Paula . .

and remember what Mom always said

when I goofed up in sewing . .

"If anyone is close enough to see that mistake

they better love you

and if they do,

mistakes don't matter.")

So,

yes,

I am happy with what I have made so far.

My thoughts for tomorrow are:

1. finish the outline of the canopy

2. add the apples

(after making a sketch of one so they look round-ish)

and

3. either fill in the rest of the canopy

or

finish  the trunk.

I have had thoughts of leaving the canopy

"semi-empty."

Meaning selected areas of green . .

perhaps shaped around each apple.

Dear Lord,

Thank you so much for steering me back home for my teaching career. You allowed me to watch and absorb the skills of one fine artist.

Thank you for creating those people who developed corrective lens implants, and taught Dr. Siedlecki how to carefully remove my cataracts and implant my new vision. You are allowing me to see things I thought had left me.
Amen

Signed,

A Stitcher at Peace
(147)