Cross-stitch Ganesha/Puliyar - and lessons learned

The husband's parents moved to Texas from India in the 1960s-1970s.  They are Hindu, and in fact were instrumental in founding the main Hindu temple in Pearland (south of Houston).  When we were living in El Paso, I had a lot more spare time, and so I decided to make something for them.  

Through the magic of the internet, I found a clip-art Ganesha (known to his family - South Indians - as Puliyar) and converted it to a cross-stitch pattern through some free-trial program.  It was a lovely pattern, very clear, with specific DMC/Anchor threads listed, and so I set to work.

Lessons I learned:

1) it's self-torture to work on black cloth, as you can't see the holes.

2) if a pattern calls for 42 inches of floss, and you're using 2 strands together, you really only need 14 inches of six-strand floss.  Yes, I bought enough floss for three projects.

3) there's a reason pattern designers get paid for their work, and it's not just putting clip art through pattern-creating programs.  My pattern had 21 colors, and one showed up for just 2 stitches, and a few others would have one stitch every four inches or so.  It's all gradations of blue/green/gray, so a human rather than a computer creating it would have made it much more stitching-friendly.  (I did take over the 2-stitch color with another color.)

4) a large project on black cloth with 21 colors unintelligently designed will take longer than the 4 months until Christmas I promised myself.  In fact, it will take around 2 years (conveniently, until the mother-in-law's 60th birthday party... which, to be a more effective surprise party, was thrown at a time of year nowhere near her birthday).

But they loved it, and the husband's dear grandmother takes such pride in showing it off to her friends, and they've installed it in a prominent position in their home, so I feel it was all worth it.

 

(sorry for the bad photo, it's reflective and this was taken during a party - that's me in pink in the reflection.)

Not worth it enough to do it again, though, even if I do have enough thread to make three.

Christmas birds

Can't find the SD card (that happen to anyone else?), so: here's some pictures of little things I made for my cardinal-loving grandmother last Christmas. I love kits!

Bride

Going to a dear friend's wedding in New York. I don't think this'll be finished by the wedding on Sunday, but it's a ton of fun! She's done some massive cross-stitch pieces in the past, so I think she'll appreciate it.

Bless you both, Kate and Dave!

Star Blanket

Himself's cousin is having a baby, their third. I've learned a bit about babies and blankets with each one -- after the first, I learned that ribbons threaded through eyelets, while pretty, get torn out as soon as baby can manage to tear it out. After the second, I was told that baby really loves corners, so could I possibly manage a blanket with more corners?

So, from The Diva Crochets, here's a star-shaped afghan. Her pattern really pulls when you make it (although apparently, from her picture, it comes out well with lots of blocking), so I made it in a way that seemed a bit more rational (and fit with one of the two ways she explained to do it), and here's pre-blocking (because I'll never remember to photograph post-blocking):



I used Lily's Sugar and Cream, 100% cotton, which was much fun to work with. This was begun as soon as they announced, before they found out what the upcoming baby would be -- it's a boy, and I think the colors will work well. I enjoyed seeing how it pooled -- always a fun experience with variegated yarns.

I also made an Emmeline apron out of a pair of cotton saris -- they're fun, because they come with their own border material, the red with a green and gold border, and the green (which you can see at the corner) with a red and gold border. The saris are very cheap (175 Rs -- about $3), and made out of thin cotton, the kind I used to wear all the time when living in India, but that wouldn't be appropriate for the only time I wear them now, to fancy events.

And just because I was near it when taking pictures, I bought this Tudor Rose needlepoint kit at Liberty's in London (but produced by English Heritage, I believe, or some similar organization) somewhere in the early 1990s, and it took me about 10 years to finish it. Never been much of one for needlepoint! Found that such kits are no longer sold, unfortunately -- it's all dinky cross-stitches of stately homes and abbeys. Which is nice, but not what I wanted!

What's the project that's taken you longest to finish?

Aunt Cushion

This is a cross-stitch cushion I made for my aunt. It's entertaining -- she has such specific likes in colors, ones that no one else has, that everyone who saw this in progress knew exactly who the intended recipient was.

It's about four inches across; as mentioned below, I don't like finishing, so I had my lovely mother (who's finished pillows for me before) make it up for me -- she added some ribbon around the needlework to make it a bit larger.

Sweet, don't you think? Pattern's from this book.

Packet of fun stuff!

OOOOHhhh look at all the fun stuff here -- I want it!

Tonight: pumpkin soup (my 2nd recipe off of Anna Maria Horner's apron-for-soup cookbook so far).

Tomorrow: Clean house because contractors are coming by to fix the Ike leaks, and Himself's cousins are coming in to town.

If I can fit it in over the weekend:
That's right, the Greek Festival's going on one block from my house. Better find time to go, in-between taking time off from work for contractors and in-laws!

Also doing a plastic canvas I got off of freecycle, because it makes me happy and goes so much faster than the 2-year crossstitch I've been doing for a present for someone... it's really not my style, but I love it anyhow. Pictures when done (hopefully soon!).

Speaking of pictures, I did a secret belgian binding -- and it's lovely. Pictures soon, I promise.