Upside Down

I work the border from the middle to the edge, then turn the work upside down and work in the other direction. Progress is slow at the moment. Yesterday disappeared in washing and ironing and getting the kitchen clean. Ah well, lockdown has been extended and I can't buy fabric for the curtains that this is to go on until after it's over, so there's no urgency.

Real Roses

This magnificent arrangement was delivered to me on Saturday. It has real roses! I've almost finished embroidering my second set of roses, then I can start the border:

One Done

Well, it's not easy to photograph, but one border for a curtain is finished. I need three, so I'm not done yet. I do like the brown lines that define the border. Here's a closer view:

Influence

Whenever I do cross stitch, I think of my Gran. I first did cross stitch under her watchful eye when I was seven years old. I made two mats, one with a dog and a cat on it and the other with a butterfly. She was a prolific knitter and crocheter, as well as doing cross stitch and other embroidery. I still have and use some of her embroidered things, like this tray cloth:

Interestingly, Gran was my father's stepmother, so I can't say I inherited her love of craftwork. But her example and teaching have nevertheless influenced my life.

A Closer Look

I'm working my cross stitch over three threads of evenweave fabric, using three strands of embroidery cotton. That's bigger and thicker than I've ever worked before, but I need it to be bold enough to show up on curtains. It took a while, but eventually I got my eye in, so that now I notice if I've made a mistake and the stitch looks wrong.

A New Curtain Project

 I was given some evenweave fabric by a friend who is moving house. There were some cross stitch booklets in the parcel too.  Hmm, I thought, a frieze to put on the next set of curtains.

My plans evolved, as my plans are wont to do. To begin with, I visualised following the pattern exactly. I soon discovered that my stash of embroidery thread is nowhere near as large as I imagine. So I decided I'd use different colours for the roses, and different greens for the leaves. That's fine, roses come in a myriad of shades!  There is plenty of the brown thread, so I'll use that throughout for continuity. I cut my fabric, marked the centre in both directions, and began embroidering. I soon realised that I'd have to work an awful lot of roses to cover three curtains! So I'm leaving a space between roses. I could perhaps put a rose bud in the space, but I'll finish the roses first and see how I feel.  The placing of the roses is a bit off on this first one, because of changing my mind, but I can live with that.

Different Style

This one is a departure from my go-to pattern, both in style and in that it's a lariat rather than a necklace fastened with a press stud. I've used this poppy pattern before, as a bracelet. The glass 'leaf' at the end was made by my sister-in-law, Clare Gaylard.