Continuing the work on “Making Tracks”, my piece for the June Take It Further challenge:
The next level of the framework is constructed, this time one half at a time.
Sixteen stitches on each line.
Again, the procedure is to skip every other stitch to the end of the pathway, turn around and come back to complete the pattern.
Finally, the outer frame is put into place with thirty-two stitches from point to point on the pathway.
The completed framework.
As I’ve been stitching and reflecting on this piece I’ve discovered a few interesting things:
Stitching blackwork is a lot like life. We head out on a path, choosing our direction, sometimes from more than one possibilities, but often we miss a lot along the way. It’s not usually as regular and even as blackwork stitching, nevertheless, we move forward and often find ourselves turning around and having to fill in the gaps before we can move forward onto new pathways.
Often we have to do things over again, more than once, before we get it right. One thread off throws the whole design out of kilter, requiring taking out and starting over. I had to do that twice on the outer framework line.
Triangles are everywhere. I started out with my drafting triangle and have found myself stitching triangles throughout this piece. I like the whole concept of triangles. They’re dynamic with their diagonal lines constantly drawing your eye away from and toward the points. But they’re also incredibly stable and solid. They fit together neatly yet are always pointing to something else.
Our lives in community are a lot like triangles, I think. Triangling among people is usually not a good thing, though.
Stitching blackwork is very calming. Throughout the day filled with packing and cleaning I took short breaks here and there to stitch. It was amazing how the regularity of stitching the black on white path would provide a breather that would allow me to go back to the work at hand with renewed energy.
Now the piece is “all boxed in,” just as we nearly are with our packing, and it’s ready for the filling stitches.
I’m taking pretty broad liberty with the color palette. Since I couldn’t tell if the fourth color was really green or brown, I’m using both, plus pushing the edges on the other colors.
The snail trails will be composed of two sets of colors.
The first will progress from light to dark: DMC 822, 3024, 738, 3023, and 838.
The other will move from dark to light: DMC 413, 937, 645, 469, and 415.
All of these threads are from my stash and have been used somewhere in other projects, mostly counted cross stitch, I think. And they’ve done a lot of traveling with me, just like my drafting triangle and the piece of linen they’ll be stitched on.
I’ll be picking out stitch patterns as I go along, rather than planning everything out in advance. Traveling is sometimes more fun that way. The framework’s in place, like an overall general itinerary, but the stops and sightseeing and details along the way are spontaneous.
A great way to take a trip or tell a story.
Note: Tomorrow our internet service will be cut off in preparation for our move , so I’ll be doing my best to find wifi stations where I can post each day as we travel. If I miss any it will be because I couldn’t get internet service. We plan to arrive in Virginia on Wednesday.
