The gold purls are out, meanwhile

So far I have removed the gold purls and the pearl purl outline. Before doing so, I added a few other stitches so that I could see how the Sulky would tear away. There’s still the cleaning up of threads and removal of the string padding to do. Allie, you were absolutely right. It feels good to have the unacceptable work gone.

Here are the reclaimed gold purl cuts, some of which will be usable somewhere.

I’m going to make some changes as I start anew. For one, I’m going to dye the soft cotton padding yarn a deeper yellow/gold and wax it, per a tip from Tanja Berlin. While I’m waiting for the supplies to arrive, I’ll show you an earlier goldwork piece.

In 2005 my grandson Matt was a senior in high school and I wanted to make a graduation present for him. He had been accepted at Case Western Reserve University, so I decided to see whether I could use the university logo in a design for stitching. I got the logo from their website, naturally.

This logo looked promising. I played around with some thumbnail ideas for incorporating it into a design.

Here was the first rough idea for the final layout.

But I still had to work out how to surround the logo. I wanted to use patterns of matrix stitching. So here was where I began to experiment on graph paper.

I still had to decide on the patterns of matrix stitching to use, so I did more experiments on thumbnails. I’m not showing you all the experiments I did.

Meanwhile, time was passing. It was already April. Time to try out some stitch experiments.

One idea I tried and rejected was combining gold and silver sadi in the logo. I thought I wanted to use battlement couching (on the left) but that didn’t work out. Here are some more pattern possibilities. I really liked #5, but eventually chose the un-numbered example on the bottom.

I had a hard time choosing which patterns to use, but here is the final design, ready to be transferred to silk.

For this piece I elected to use Indian sadi gold metal threads instead of the English ones I’ve been accustomed to use. You may be able to see that the sadi threads, at the top, are slightly larger than their English counterparts, from left to right–pearl purl, smooth purl, and check purl.

The blue threads are Rajmahal silk/rayon on silk charmeuse. And here’s the finished piece.

If you click on the image of the whole work and then on All Sizes at Flickr, you may be able to see red French knots in the middle of the sadi loops of the central border. Case Western Reserve’s colors are blue and white, but Matt graduated from Friends School which enormously contributed to his development, and the Friends’ colors are red and white. Hence, a touch of red to represent the Quaker influence.

Here you can see the gold purl over string padding. I decided to alternate two smooth purls with one bright check purl. This photo was taken before I had a digital camera and Photo Shop and since Matt has the piece, I can’t show you a better shot of the details.

This piece was worked three years ago. I don’t think I’ve stitched purls over padding since then. My problem with technique is that I don’t do enough of these difficult kinds of stitching to master them, and every time I want to use one, such as my current project, I have to learn all over again. I’m not able to stitch enough to acquire the level of technical competence I wish I had.

I started Matt’s gift on March 9th and finished it on May 18th, 2005–90 hours of work.

We’ll see whether I’m able to do the goldwork well enough on the S.

I have decided

Having sent an order for gold purl and other supplies to Tanja Berlin, I am going to put on a Teaching Company DVD, sit comfortably in my recliner, and, using my Sit-on-It frame holder to hold the frame so I can use both hands, I will laboriously and carefully unstitch the S. Then I will start again to see if I can get it right.

This is boring, isn’t it?

If you don’t know about Tanja Berlin, she is an accomplished needleartist, designer, and teacher, a graduate of The Royal School of Needlework apprenticeship. She also completed two years of post-graduate work at the School. She teaches about ten different needlework techniques, in classes and by mail. When she sells her original design kits, she offers free e-mail coaching. She also sells lots of hard-to-find supplies. If you want to see some beautiful needleart today, check out her site and mosey around a bit. There’s lots to see.

ME-CFS Awareness Day

For the past 16 years I have had ME-CFS, and for the past 15 years I have been mostly housebound and very limited in activity. Even more than physical activity, social activity makes my symptoms worse. This means I can have very little interaction with others, including my family. And when I do, I feel much worse and can do much less for days or weeks afterwards.

But I have financial security, a beautiful and comfortable home with all the support services I need, a sympathetic doctor even though medical science can do little for me, and best of all, I have a loving, care giving husband. With the Internet, e-mail, and this blog, I have friends all over the world. My life, though so limited, is good, rich in fact.

There are many, many people with ME-CFS who are completely without resources. Formerly professional people have become homeless. I know one. It’s not unusual for husbands to abandon wives with ME-CFS. I know one. There are women living alone, without care-givers, struggling to survive. I know three of them. Healthy friends disappear, unable to tolerate the unpredictability and limitations of our lives. Mine are long gone. Most medical practitioners know nothing about ME-CFS; and because they are ignorant, they diagnose the patient as neurotic or malingering. The government agencies charged with investigating and researching health issues ignore this condition and misuse the funds appropriated for it. Can you imagine what would happen to you if you suddenly became completely unable to earn income? It took five years for me to get Social Security Disability Insurance. Without my husband’s income, what would have happened to me? There are no social agencies established to provide support for people with ME-CFS.

Some day this illness or whatever it is will be understood. Maybe it can be prevented. Maybe there will be effective treatments. Because these eventualities have not yet been realized, many people who know someone with ME-CFS doubt the reality of their symptoms and disability. We usually look well. There are times when we may be able to function as a healthy person can–for a little while. That reinforces the skepticism of the unbelievers.

Worse than being in pain and unable to function is the knowledge that people, often people we care about, doubt that we are really ill.

ME-CFS is a devastating, life-changing condition from which recovery is exceedingly rare. It has taken away almost everything that had meaning for me. That life is gone. Nevertheless, because of the blessings given to me, my life is good. For so very many others, it is wretched, so unbearable that often the cause of death among people with ME-CFS is suicide.

The CFIDS Association of America and The National CFIDS Foundation are working hard on our behalf. They accept donations online.

Waiting

As I wait for inspiration about what to do with my failed gold purl S, I’ve been sorting and inventorying my gold supplies, reviewing books and online sites, and reading The New York Review of Books–just to give myself a break.

I’ve also taken some more pictures of our neighbors’ doorway decorations in celebration of Charlestown’s 25th anniversary. Here’s a quiet example.

A bit more exuberant.

And a diorama of Charlestown’s entrance.

It says, “Look for the silver lining….

“And you will find the sunny side of life”

A fitting advice for those of us living our golden years in Charlestown’s silver anniversary.

Celebration, but not Charlestown’s

To celebrate our 22 years of marriage, following 15 years of being together unwed.

Here’s a detail of the bouquet.

While we were living on a lake in West Virginia, I grew this Spectra rose, similar in coloration to the ones in our bouquet, which came from South America.

The buds were red and as the petals progressively opened, the red faded to the edges and the yellow predominated. My favorite–red and yellow=orange.

We celebrated with a home-made roasted Portabello, zucchini, onion, and chevre pizza. No martini for me as I’m trying a sleep medication.

Our cafe

Leaving the Medical Center where I’d had an appointment with my doctor, I took some pictures. This cafe is just a short way down the hall from the Medical Center.

Besides the old-fashioned jars of candy, it features a soda fountain and an old Coke machine. I’ll bet you’ve never seen a soda fountain. At age 13, with a worker’s permit, I worked the soda fountain at our neighborhood drug store (that’s what they were called then). You can have sandwiches, salads, and other light stuff made to order. Ice cream soda anyone?

Here’s the General Store adjacent to the Fountain Hill Cafe.

At the opposite side of the soda fountain is a grab-and-go refrigerated case filled with sandwiches, salads, fruit, desserts, beverages, and snacks–ready to eat.

Across the hall, just a few steps from the soda fountain is a seating area.

With a juke box loaded with Golden Oldies.

Does this look like an old folks’ home to you? I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, they convert one of the dining rooms to a food court.

It’s a great place to live. More about our 25th anniversary celebration to follow. Come back soon, won’t you?

Oh, by the way, Ernie and I are celebrating 10 years at Charlestown this week, and 22 years since we made our illicit relationship “licit” at the Courthouse. But that’s another story. We’ve been together 37 years.

Practice

When I finished the gold purl S yesterday, here’s how much of that thread I had left. I have lots of other gold threads, but not that one.

I had to eke out the last inch of the S with damaged purl because that’s all I had left and it was barely enough. It was damaged because I unstitched the bottom of the S twice.

This work was beyond my skill level. It looks okay at a distance, but up close, it will not pass muster. It definitely will not do in a photograph. I think I will have to consider this my practice cloth.

I’m thinking, should I take out this patch and replace it? Or should I start from scratch and piece a second block? If I decide to do that, I will have to order some more 12 inch stretcher bars for another frame.

And of course I will need to order more gold purl.

Do I have the heart to start over? We’ll see.

Unstitching

Well, I should have worked the S for practice first. After spending over an hour getting this far in covering the padding with gold purl, it was clear that what I was doing wasn’t giving me the results I wanted.

Although the focus is poor, you can see that the spacing of the gold purls coming around the curve are not aligned at the right angle. So I took them out.

It takes almost as long to unstitch goldwork as to stitch it. Afterwards, I trying drawing on paper the way the gold purls should lie, but nothing I drew looked workable. I’ve done this kind of stitching before, and I have lots of examples of it in books, but none that show this kind of stitching on the curves of an S. I’m resolved to try again today before deciding that I’ll have to try some different kind of thread to cover the S.

This is strenuous work for me, as one has to sit upright directly over the work to place the stitches accurately. Cutting each little purl is exacting and sometimes it takes several tries to get JUST the right length. Holding that posture over time is very tiring for me. But I love to do the work!

First stitches

Oh, I’m excited! I’m finally stitching the first S design. I’m not going to strain your interest by showing you every step of the way, but I do want you to see what’s involved in getting started.

My new floor stand is a dream. Turns of two knobs and it was perfectly positioned to hold the frame, which must be level, parallel to the floor, for this kind of work. Do click on the images so you can see them larger. You can click twice.

My supplies are at hand on the shelf. The S initial has been padded with soft cotton, using varying numbers of strands to achieve the right thickness for the shape of the letter.

And I’ve attached the first pieces of bright check bullion.

For this initial, I’m using two kinds of gold metal threads: the bright check bullion for the ends of the letter and the finest brilliant smooth bullion (AKA purl) for the rest. Below you can see the fine smooth bullion on my home-made velvet-covered cutting board. The velvet keeps the metal from jumping about and rolling off as I’m cutting it. You can see two little pieces I’ve cut for stitching. They are threaded on a needle like beads. The challenge is to cut the pieces of gold exactly the right length to lie smoothly across the padding.

I’ve shown the tiny needle, like a little beading needle, threaded with silk thread that has been strengthened by waxing it, running it across the beeswax shell. For comparison, that’s a #22 chenille (crewel) needle, such as I would use with #8 pearl cotton. I work with magnifying lenses attached to my glasses. You may be able to see them on the shelf above. Here I’ve added check bullion to the end of the S shape.

Now the challenge for me is to resist stitching for longer periods than I should. I don’t want to get sicker! I want to do this piece.

Not much progress

Because I spent too much time in the kitchen and blogging yesterday, I didn’t get to stitching my first S design. I’m going to get to try a new technique using Sulky Tear-Easy paper for transferring a design to fabric.

I learned about this aid and bought it from Carole Samples whom you can see here. She’s the author of the wonderful book, A Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches and the creator of the oh-so-helpful templates described by Sharon Boggon in CQonline Magazine.

Here’s my design traced on Tear-Easy with a Sharpie.

I want to stitch the S with gold purl (metal), but I’m uncertain about whether I can because the shape is so small. Normally, I would first try doing it on a trial cloth, which I have already framed up, ready for use.

But this time I think I’m going to go right to the patchwork.

I’ve pinned the Sulky tracing in place. The idea is to stitch right through the paper, then carefully tear it away. Will it work with metal thread stitching? We’ll see. You can see my protective plastic folded back just to expose the part I will be stitching. Now to get out my gold threads, clamp the framed patchwork to my new floor stand, and go for it.