my oldest UFO, finished and stretching

I have bravely changed my header, as snowdrops are coming up all around in our part of the world. It is probably a long way to spring yet, but there is hope.....

My oldest UFO.

Many, many, many years ago I bought my first needlepoint tapestry kit. I wasn't doing much of any stitching at the time and I had no particular interest in needlepoint, I just fell in love with the design.

And so I brought my kit home and started stitching. From the top. First BIG mistake, as I learnt later.

My stitching looked terrible, and I lost heart. My new and exiting project wasn't so exiting any more. It got pushed around various corners, in the end it ended up in a wooden trunk.

Now, to end up in the wooden trunk is the ultimate in our house. It means "unwanted, uncared for, unloved". The trunk gets very rarely inspected, after the trunk it is usually a jumble sale.

Then one day, in the middle of the Somerset countryside, I came across Jolly Red, a shop owned my Kelly Fletcher, a needlepoint heaven. I wrote about Jolly Red in my 31. December post, so I will not repeat.

I rescued my kit from the trunk and in one of Kelly's workshops I learnt how to stitch needlepoint tapestry. Unfortunately, during my initial attempts I wasted some of the cream Anchor wool, used for the background and that shade was no longer in production. I had to use the nearest shade to it, but of course, it does show. Still, it took a long time before the tapestry was finished, as there were new and more exiting projects around, and even after I did finish it, it was stored, rolled up, in my workroom. Until today.

My oldest UFO, my first ever needlepoint embroidery, finished, washed and stretching, waiting to dry.

Cherries

It will probably live out its life as a part of a cushion cover, I have not decided yet, but I will let you know when I'll do!

Have a good weekend!

UFO - korak

I am currently in the process of sorting out my room, which, I am afraid, could take some time. I have come across some UFO's, which I am sure many of you have too.
The most interesting of all my UFO's is my Korak sampler.
The first time I came across Korak, was when one of the Guild members brought in a patchwork she was working on, but I was intrigued by the method she was using to stitch what looked like a quilt top.
She was working from a book by a Swiss author Ruth Tschudy, which she came across on her holidays in Germany. Eventually I managed to find this book on  Amazon. It is a very interesting book, showing some old Koraks, and also some of Ruth's own work and projects to make with instructions.
The text inside the book is in both German and English.

Korak is thought to be one of the most ancient form of patchwork in the world. They were produced in the areas along the Silk Route, mainly in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Koraks were used mainly as floor and wall coverings by the nomads living in the area, sometimes pressed into still soft mud walls of their new huts. Because they were made along the Silk Route, where the caravans were bringing fabrics from different parts of the world, Koraks were made with all sorts of fabrics, cottons, silks, brocade, velvet ...
Ruth Tschudy's book explains the significance of shapes and colours used, mainly the triangle.
The Koraks are stitched onto a foundation fabric like old cottons, linen etc. I used a piece of calico. A lot of work goes into the preparation, making templates and cutting out the fabric shapes.
You start with drawing a grid onto the foundation fabric, whatever design you want to stitch. Then you lay and pin on the shapes, starting at the bottom, working upwards, overlapping the raw edges as you go along.
All the stitching is done by hand, on the right side, using the straight hem stitch, again starting from the bottom, removing the pins as you sew. Koraks are not backed or quilted.
My sampler is about 40 x 36 cm. I made it only as an exercise, not really thinking ahead what I am going to do with it. Later I decided it could be made into a wall hanging, so I stared to embellish it. I think that at that point I did run out of ideas and it ended up in the draw. May be it is time to resurrect it!