I spied this treasure in the back of the top of my closet the other day, and realized it needed to come out and see the light of day again. I started this piece on July 4, 1976, while our country was celebrating it's Bicentennial...I remember watching the fireworks on TV as I was house sitting for friends in Spokane, and stitching away on the outlines of the states. I thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate the United States at the time. It took me nearly 4 years of off and on work to finish and hung on the wall for many years until after one of our moves it was relegated to the closet. It had gotten quite dirty in all its years (nearly 30!!) and so it spent about 2 full days soaking in Oxyclean. It looks pretty good again now as it hangs by pins unframed in my office. I designed it. All of it. Every last stitch. I don't think I will ever be that ambitious again!! LOL! I have to admit that about 30 of the blackwork patterns were from books I had at the time, but coming up with the other 20 was my invention. It was pretty hard to get something to fit in the tiny little states like Rhode Island and Connecticut!!! But now, after all this time, I am proud of it again. It will soon have a frame worthy of all the hard work!I traced the map onto the fabric with a fabric transfer sheet, using a map from the road atlas!! It is stitched on hardanger 22, creme colored, black DMC and some kind of gold thread outlining the states...not sure I could tell you what kind of gold thread, probably doesn't exist anymore anyway!!!
Western Washington was cooking like an oven today, it got over 100 degrees, which is torture for us here with the humidity and all...my thermometer still says 90 degrees, and it is after 9 PM. So unusual here...it usually cools off drastically in the evenings...it is supposed to be worse tomorrow. It's a little hard to see in this picture but we had a brilliant orange sunset tonight...absolutely gorgeous!!!
4 comments:
That's very pretty, Connie! I'm planning on trying out blackwork as soon as my current project is done --but that will probably be a year or two, as long as I keep up at it! :)
I had forgotten all about that map you stitched- I remember looking at it with dad, while he told me the state's names...I wondered what happened to it there for awhile, and then forgot about it many years ago. I'm glad it's rejoined the family! I had no idea you designed it! Wow, I wondered if it was over 100 today or not! It was reminding me of summers in Pullman today! One of the many reasons I couldn't wait to leave!
That is really neat, Connie. Be sure you get it framed so you can hang it up.
Looked like a beautiful sunset. Wish we could see them from here.
Our sunset was gorgeous last night too - Gary has a pic on today's blog post.
Guess you'll have to schedule a trip back here to cool off - at least it's nice and cool in the house! Over 110 degrees outside, but 74 degrees here at the table. Can't tell you how much I'm enjoying out new central system - ugly heat pump in my rose garden and all, lol!
I remember that blackwork piece!! Glad it's making a reappearance with a new frame. :D
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