Kick it Up a Neotch

It is summer, and that means that it's time for the Mystery Steotch-Along!

Steotch is a cross-stitch pattern company that combines old-fashioned pattern styles with pop culture references.  I love the way that they take classic motifs and turn them on their heads, showing that cross-stitch doesn't have to be dainty and proper.  Those with finer sensibilities might find their patterns to be . . . ribald.  (One of these days, I will find the courage to enter "Return to Shady Thicket" in a State Fair.)

At this point, irreverent cross-stitch companies are a dime a dozen on Etsy.  What sets Steotch apart from its imitators is the complexity of the patterns.  Until now, the cross-stitch patterns I have done have all been beginner-friendly.  They used only regular cross-stitches and some backstitch for definition.  Steotch uses what are known as "fractional stitches," which are one-quarter or three-quarters the size of a standard cross-stitch.  This requires inserting the needle in the middle of a square of aida fabric.  It takes some getting used too--you want to gently wiggle the needle between the fabric warps and wefts without piercing them.  These stitches result in images with finer details than ones that use only standard cross-stitches.

This is also my first time using an effect called "tweeding."  Instead of stitching with two strands of one color of floss, you use one strand each of two different colors.  The result is stitches with subtle color variations.

This is third time Steotch has had a mystery stitch-along.  Two years ago, they began with a picture of Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction with the (fictionalized) Bible quote from the movie.  It had the same level of complexity as their standard patterns, so people complained that it wasn't beginner-friendly.  Last year, the pattern was one of Snoopy that you could customize with a number of Snoop Dog quotes.  It was much easier for beginners . . . but people still complained about enduring weeks upon weeks of white stitches against a white background.  This year, the pattern will be more like the one from the first year, but it will be spread out over a longer period of time.

Here is how my project looks after Week #1.

I'm hoping it has something to do with Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation, whose pithy statements have become a favorite in the craft world.  ("Never half-ass two things.  Whole-ass one thing." Words to live by . . .)

For modern cross-stitchers who are looking for a challenge, Steotch provides the answer.  I love the idea of creating a project that not only matches my sense of humor, but also helps me grow as a stitcher.

For Mary and Terry

My mom met Mary when they were both working at Children's Hospital in Chicago.  They became friends quickly, and soon my parents became equally close with Mary's husband, Terry.  For almost 40 years the two couples would get together socially, talk on the phone, and celebrate milestones.

Last winter, Terry passed away after a long struggle with colon cancer.  Part of his process for saying goodbye was writing a poem for Mary that he wanted included in the program at his funeral.  Afterwards, my mom asked me if I could make embroidered art of the poem.  I'll admit that I was hesitant at first because I had just completed my first commission.  (It's been several months, and I am still getting nightmares about my client calling me on the phone to scream, "I HATE IT!  CHANGE EVERYTHING!")  But even when I wasn't trying to think about it, I began to form ideas in my head of how this piece would look, so I agreed to do it.

These are the last two lines of the poem.  I wrote them out in swirling, flowing lines evocative of the wind imagery in the piece.  The first line is dark blue, with each subsequent line in a lighter shade of blue.  The last word is two strands of white thread with one strand of silver Kreinik.  I'm going to mail this to my mom, who will frame it.  My mom loves the final result and I hope Mary will, too.

Mary,
Develop a sensitivity to soft breezes
because if the dead do come back,
it'll be my words against your cheek.
Always remember, my love,
that walking through life with you
has been an honor and a pleasure.

Project Update--6/2/2015

I've been on quite a productive streak lately.  Here are some projects that I haven't covered in previous posts.

I had never planned on buying Christmas-themed patterns for obvious reasons.  Then last December, the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery ladies gave me their Christmas Celebration Sampler for free.  They wanted to show their appreciation for the way I encouraged people to enter their patterns in state fairs.  The pattern was just so adorable, I couldn't NOT make it.  I decided to make Christmas patterns to give to my friends.  Ironically, right after I bought the Christmas patterns, two of my friends told me that they were studying Judaism with intent to convert.  (I'm drawing the line with Christmas patterns.  I will not make any Jesus ones, even if they are references to Simpsons episodes.)

I made this one for my friend Julia.  It has a lace border made of reindeer, snowflakes, and snowmen.  The pattern shows pictures that represent each letter in Christmas.  Can you guess what they are?

Luckily, I finished this one right in time for a 50% off framing sale at a local art store.  I'm glad I waited for the sale, because I had a LOT of projects to frame.

I also finished the May frame for FPS's Story Time Sampler.  This month was Charlotte's Web.

Some pig.

I just got the pattern for June, and it is one of my favorite children's stories of all time!  What characters do you want to see?

Remember Belgium

This past weekend, my friend Julia and I went to a local historical site, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  For my readers outside of America, Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States.  He began his career as a mining engineer, then organized humanitarian efforts before becoming the Secretary of Commerce.  He served only one term as president before being voted out, and he has had a less-than-stellar reputation due to the Great Depression starting in his first year of office.  However, he was the only president to be born in the state of Iowa, so his museum is a popular destination for elementary school field trips.

You might be wondering why I would devote space on my blog to this attraction, and the answer is because they are preserving a fascinating chapter in needlework history.

During World War I, the country of Belgium was disproportionately affected by German submarine blockades.  They had previously relied on importing food, and they did not have enough land to grow the amount of food necessary to support their population.  Hoover became the chair of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, which organized food and monetary donations for Belgium during the war.

I don't know why I thought they had a real ship.  It was a parade float.

A large portion of the food relief came in the form of 50-pound flour sacks.  CRB organizers were concerned that the empty flour sacks could fall into the wrong hands.  There was a risk that people would fill them with inferior flour for reselling.  If the Germans got them, they could use the cotton for manufacturing ammunition.

To reduce these possibilities, organizers carefully kept track of the flour sacks, then sent the empty ones to professional schools where women were learning to sew and embroider as a trade.  Some women embellished the company logos on the bags, while others stitched elaborate messages of thanks to their American benefactors.  These embroidered flour sacks were used to raise money for the relief effort, and Hoover received many as gifts.  Today, the museum has a large collection of these flour sacks.  They have about five on display at any given time, rotating them out every several weeks.

The museum also has a display of Belgian lace.  The CRB worked to preserve this centuries-old industry by creating job opportunities for 20,000 female lace-makers.  Hoover's wife, Lou, used her connections to find buyers for the lace.

Bobbin lace

The exhibit is a reminder of the power that handmade objects held.  For every world-changing event, women were there to comment with their needles and thread.

Pretty Little Syndey

I am lucky to have really awesome in-laws.  My husband's parents love me like I am their own child, and they have been a big source of support to me.  They celebrated their 40th anniversary last summer, and I wanted to give them something special.  It was around that time that I discovered Satsuma Street Designs, a cross-stitch pattern company, and knew that one of their patterns would make the perfect gift.

Jody Rice, the designer behind Satsuma Street, likes to create patterns that combine retro shapes with bright colors.  She is becoming well known for her line of Pretty Little City patterns, which depict recognizable landmarks in cities around the world.

My in-laws are world travelers, and their house is filled with unique items from their travels.  There's the batik painting of Shabbat candles my mother-in-law made during a class in Indonesia, and a kiddush cup they had custom made when they went to Iran before the revolution.  They are social workers by day, but my father-in-law runs a boutique travel agency as a hobby business.  Last year, they lead a group trip to Australia and New Zealand, so I figured that they would enjoy a cross-stitched cityscape of Sydney.

Working on this made me realize just how little I actually know about Sydney aside from the Opera House, so I would look up the buildings as I went.  (Now the Pretty Little Sydney patterns come with a key for identifying landmarks.)  Still, the picture is fun to look at even if you aren't familiar with the city.  I like the bright palette of blues, greens, yellows, and oranges.  It was simple enough to be beginner friendly, but has enough detail to make it distinct.  My friends especially love the little surfer made of only a few stitches.  I just put it in a hoop for the picture.  I'll need to get it framed, and hopefully the lines of the buildings won't go wonky in the final version.

The other patrons of Home Ec's Saturday breakfasts were surprised over why I was making this.  When I told one woman it was for my in-laws, her eyes grew wide.  "Wow.  You must REALLY like them."  Yes, I do!  I didn't exactly complete it in time for my in-laws' 40th anniversary.  (It still counts if it is one month before their 41st, right?)  Luckily, they loved the picture I sent them and are willing to wait a bit longer so I can enter it in the State Fair.  I could probably spend the next several anniversaries giving them stitched versions of places they've visited; however, as a Chicago native I think I need to work on the Pretty Little version of that city next!

I Can Haz Grumpy Cat

For a silent auction at my synagogue, I donated the opportunity for me to embroider the winner's favorite quote.  A very nice woman won that item, and explained that she wanted a piece of art that was inspired by her favorite refrigerator magnet.  An embarrassingly long amount of time later, I have finished her piece.  Behold . . . the cutest angry cat you will ever see!

I worked on this during Saturday mornings at Home Ec.  He quickly became a favorite among my friends, especially after I filled in the eyes with satin stitch.  The woman wanted the cat to have calico coloring like her own pet.  I'm not a cat person, so I had to look at a lot of Google images to get something resembling the real thing.  Like the lion on the Torah mantle, I used seed stitch to fill in the color patches.  It's less tedious than using satin stitch, and I like the way it is suggestive of fur without looking photo-real.  That's what I like about embroidery as a medium--using a variety of stitches to create images that are suggestive of real images, yet with a more interpretive and artistic style.

Last Friday, I went to Home Ec and framed the piece in a hoop.  They had a pretty purple flower ribbon that I used to decorate the hoop.

The woman gave me a big hug and told me she loved it, but my favorite reaction was that of my husband's:  "It makes me want to hug and pet the cat until he stops being angry."

My New Crafting Hero

I am a big fan of post-apocalyptic fiction.  Nuclear war, pandemics, volcanic winter, asteroid collisions.  Even though it sometimes gives me nightmares, I am a sucker for stories of bands of scrappy survivors trying to move on after a huge catastrophe--the grimmer, the better.  (No zombies, though, because I want to read about apocalypses that can actually happen.)

This might not sound like a scenario ripe for comedy, but the new FOX sitcom The Last Man on Earth is just my kind of show.  Two years after a virus wipes out nearly all human and animal life, Phil Miller (played by Will Forte, one of my favorite comic actors) tries to carve out an existence for himself and stave off loneliness.  After criticizing the movie Castaway for Tom Hank's volleyball companion, he soon has a veritable social circle of sports balls with smiley faces drawn on them.

Soon, he finds out that he is not alone.  Into the scene comes Carol, played by Kristen Schaal.  I have been a big fan of Schaal since she was on Flight of the Conchords as Mel, an obsessive fan.  She is also the voice of Louise on Bob's Burgers, and I got to see her in their live show!

"There's really no wrong way to use a margarita pool."

Schaal brings the obsessive qualities of her previous characters to Last Man.  Carol is prim, shrill, and focused on details.  She insists that Phil continue to follow all pre-virus rules and social conventions, including stopping for stop signs and getting married before they repopulate the world.  Phil spends his post-virus existence indulging in destruction, playing with a flame thrower and bowling with aquariums instead of pins.  In contrast, Carol spends much of her free time making crafts.  She can be seen knitting and sewing in the backgrounds of scenes.  It brings to mind the Facebook meme, "Knitting:  It's not a craft, it's a post-apocalyptic life skill."  (I am afraid that if I were left with all the time I could ever want to craft, it would end up being a Twilight Zone "Time Enough at Last" situation.)

As the episodes go on, however, Carol's crafts aren't just a sign of her fussy nature.  They become symbolic of the way that she is trying to make the best of a bad situation.  She knows that Phil only married her out of desperation, and she puts a lot of effort into make it work.  Each stage of their relationship is marked by one of Carol's crafts.  She raids an abandoned craft store to get decorations for the wedding, and retreats there after Phil screws it up.  She bedazzles a pillow to inform Phil that he is being a jerk.

"You know how I feel about scrubs."  "You don't want no."

When Phil thinks he has finally worked up the courage to tell Carol the truth, he loses the will to end the relationship when he sees the door decoration she made for their house.

"Phil, you know the door symbolizes our marriage."  "I know, Carol.  I know."

When neither of them can ignore the reality of their situation any longer, Carol shows him the ugly quilt she made from found fabrics as a way of giving him permission to divorce her.

"It's time to fold this relationship up and put it in the closet."

Now that the characters are going back to a World Made by Hand, Carol's handmade projects take on a greater significance.
What are your favorite crafting moments from TV and movies?