Monday 28 January 2008

January TIF - Finished

I invited my parents to have dinner with us last night. Mum and I were chatting in the kitchen while I prepared our food. I started to tell her about the Take It Further challenge in general and more specifically about the key concept for January. That led us to reminiscing about how Nan loved to darn and patch things. When Mum said, "Gladys did beautiful darning", I had to smile; those are the exact words that I chose to darn into my January piece.


I’ve certainly enjoyed the first month of this challenge; thank you Sharon for the key concept and the colour palette. At first I struggled to come up with a concept that I felt I could translate into stitch but I am please that I was patient and waited for the ‘right’ idea rather than pressing ahead with something I didn’t feel comfortable with. I think that my finished piece could be better, and probably would have been if I had worked out the whole design before I started stitching. I would have noticed and possibly corrected some of the things that don’t work, and perhaps come up with a more balanced design. Nonetheless, I am pleased with it and now I am eager for next month’s design to be announced.

I had an ulterior motive for inviting Mum and Dad to dinner. I collected 'Flutterbys' from the framers on Saturday and wanted to present them with it. It came as a total surprise to them and I think that they were thrilled, especially when I told them about the butterflies representing our family.

Happy Stitching

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful. It sure doesn't look like the daring I do ('cobbled together' I bet your Nan would say!) I bet your parents were thrilled with flutterbys - it is wonderful! they are very lucky to own it!!

MargB said...

Carol Anne, A wonderful tribute.
I love the colour play in your darning - superbly executed

Meg in Tennessee said...

Isn't it wonderful how great minds think alike, its amazing that you and your Mom had the same thought. A wonderful tribute to your Grandmother

Sequana said...

Where are the pics of your parents and the flutterbys???????

About your challenge piece - if it were perfect now, it would not have been much a challenge, would it? I think it's the perfect way to finish. You've learned new things.

Anonymous said...

I think your peice is wonderful and isn't it the nature of darning, that beautiful stitchery is found in the most unusal of places, so your patchwork idea is perfect.

Gwen said...

I love this piece, and the words are perfect! It is so much fun to see all of the different interpretations!

KV said...

I rather think your Nan would have liked this TIF piece very much. And what exciting news! Your parents couldn't have been anything but thrilled to receive that flutterby masterpiece of yours.


Kathy V in NM

MaryjoO said...

Your piece really caught my eye as I was VERY quickly looking at other challenge work -- it's lovely. Simple and "quiet" enough, but clever, and you know, a lovely link to the past. Not only with family, but with the darning stitch! MaryjoO
(who is bogged down with life and not doing any stitching)

Mary Corbet said...

Love it!! I love the darning stitch, too!

And the text is great!

sharonb said...

I love this - I am going through a phase of anything that reminds me of samplers - or in this case a mini sampler and darning stitch patterns are wonderful

LynnS said...

Your project is so elegant, yet humble. No doubt this tribute to your Grandmother will be cherished for years. Despite the flaws that you see, this is an exquisite sampler of stitches with wonderfully subtle colors. I saw your project posted over at the TIF Blog but wanted to write my comments here.

You did a marvelous job!