I imagining to be called “a lifestyle goddess”! More like a junk/flea market digger, hopeful to find a treasure.
But Toma, the Antiques Diva thinks differently. Go here and see why.
I’m very humbled.
THANK YOU, Toma for writing about me!!
{my embroidery: cross stitch on linen, Pierre-Joseph Redoute’s Rosa centifolia Anglica rubra}
Picked up my embroidery needle this morning. The work on recreation in stitches of beautiful watercolor Young Hare by Albrecht Durer continues. This picture below from a while back, there is some progress now.
I started working on the Hare some time ago. But needed to do a parallel take it easy project.
My choice was wool needlepoint Imari round cushion.
Somehow I went all the way finishing the Imari and leaving the Hare for a while. Well, just 99.9% finishing actually as I ran out of ecru wool. It’s been ordered with more tapestry wool for my next project. I order it from Australia as I have to give up on finding tapestry wool in Hong Kong. Several shop owners that sell embroidery stuff have told me they don’t carry wool as it is too hot in Hong Kong. Where this theory came from? We have plenty of shops selling all kinds of wool for knitting. Somehow it doesn’t make a lot of sense why it would be not too hot to knit with wool but too hot to embroider? If you’re located in Hong Kong and know where I can buy tapestry wool here, I’ll really appreciate you share it with me.
Anyways, while waiting for my DMC wool to arrive I’m back working on the Hare. I’ll need a few hours adjusting working with a finer needle again. Otherwise, it’s pure joy.
PS. Almost completed Imari cushion.
… and the Hare how it looked this morning.
Nothing special really. But I just love it when something that was stored away forever finds its use.
This small lilac and roses cross stitch I embroidered ages ago when I was probably fifteen. It was kept in a drawer together with the old embroideries made by my grandma, my mom and her sisters. Then one morning there was an idea, couple of hours of sewing and voilà!
Adding a little bit of silk on the sides to accommodate the right size, it is a perfect cushion cover now.
Working on a very elaborate embroidery with over 130 colors at the moment , I look at that naive simple pattern and think how my love for embroidery stays with me for my whole live. It does not go away, it only gets stronger.
Ничего особенного, просто моя очень давняя вышивка превратилась в наволочку для небольшой подушки. Я думаю мне было лет пятнадцать, когда я ее вышила.
Пришлось добавить немного шелка по бокам, пару часов за швейной машинкой – и наволочка готова.
Voilà! То что я больше всего люблю – когда что-то, что хранилось в шкафу много-много лет вдруг нашло своё применение.
A detail of my unfinished work – silk embroidery on a knitted sweater. My sweater is hand knit but the wool I used is for machine knitting and very fine and thin. The silk I used for this embroidery I pulled out of silk ribbons, so it is as thin as a hair.
This project is an old one, more than fifteen years I believe. I’ve started it while still living in Ukraine. When I married and moved to the States in 1999, I left my unfinished embroidery behind.
Several years ago on one of her stay-with-us-for-a-few-months visit, my mom brought it to me in Hong Kong. She said that she really liked it and I should finish it.
… it might be the time.
Remember my Chinese girl embroidery? It took me a while to think and search for a frame for it. Since finding a decent vintage (not even talking about antique) frame in HK is not an easy task, I finally took it to the frame shop I always deal with. After trying and visualizing ten or more frame samples I made my choice – black with some vintage looking gold.
Few days later I brought the framed embroidery home. Not realizing at first what was the reason, I anticipated for many days to put it on the wall. Finally I was ready to admit, I didn’t like the frame.
Here how it looks with its black framing.
After a week or so on a separate visit to the same frame shop, my sixth sense took over, ignoring a thought of been nosy, I ventured to the back of the shop. There several old frames that for their own reason were left behind, kept accumulating dust over the years. It was my (or the frame) faith. I knew since the first glance – the embroidery is going to be re-framed.
My embroidery is back to the shop today.
Here is a quick photo of the frame.
All I can say now, I cannot wait to hang it on the wall.