The Garden of Eden

Good morning everyone!  I don't know about you, but my head is still spinning from last night's Olympic ceremonies.  I didn't get a single stitch in, it was all so mesmerizing.  Who'd have thought the Queen would enter on parachute, escorted by James Bond?  Well done London, well done!

I do have news from the Garden of Eden - I'm back fast at work on Jean Rattray! Last I posted about her, this is where I had left off:

If I remember that far back, I abandoned Jean in order to wrestle into submission finish Frances Burwell. So it made sense that I take back up with her now that Frances is finally defeated  done.

And I'm enjoying every calm, placid stitch of her!  There's nothing complicated or stressful about Jean, so she's suiting my mood right now very well.  I love the openness of her design, the rhythm of her stylized border and the fact that there's not even an alphabet to be concerned with.  Here's how she looked last weekend: 

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Since then, I've been working on the Tree of Life that goes in the open space next to Eve, and adding a bit now and then to the borders on either side.

I did give Adam and Eve a little bit of pigment.  The original design had them stitched in the same pearly white that the center of the blossoms are worked in.  To my eye, that made them look more like squid hanging out under that apple tree than people!

I'm hoping to have Jean all wrapped up by September 6th, which is the date I'll be starting work on my Atocha sampler.  So many plans!

And in other news from the garden, I can't stop myself from crowing a little bit about our success as okra farmers!   The growing seasons in Florida are very different from those up north, and it's taken a long time for us to learn the flow of them.  However, last winter we had a lot of luck with tomatoes, peppers and herbs in our patio pots.  On the heels of that success, we put in a packet of okra seeds in June.  Here are the results:

Much as I'm thrilled with the harvest, I also love the look of the okra blossoms themselves.  They only last a few hours, but are spectacular in their glory.  Guess I really have turned into a southern girl!

    Hope all is well in your corner of the world, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Today is the Day

Today is Friday, July 20, 2012.  Not a significant date in history, but an anniversary nonetheless.  On this day in 1985,  the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha was found off the coast of Key West.  Pretty cool stuff. Stuff that was a very big deal for Jim as a photographer and another explanation for our love of the Keys in general. 

But what does this have to do with my stitching?  Well, please just bear with me while I fill in the backdrop story and you'll see.  First though, here's how it began:

   

The Atocha was part of a fleet of Spanish galleons returning to Spain in the fall of 1622.  The fleet  left Havana loaded with treasure when a hurricane struck and washed it onto the reefs.

 

The Atocha was carrying the largest amount of gold and silver. It sank quickly and the treasure was lost.  That is, lost until July 20, 1985, when Mel Fisher and his treasure hunters found a debris field scattered with gold coins, jewels and religious artifacts  not far off the coast of Key West.  I won't go into the details of it, but if you want to know more about this man and his amazing find, check this out:

  

Now. here's where the story gets personal...and yes, we are getting to the stitching part of it! 

As you can imagine, this was huge news at the time, especially here in Florida.  Every day there were new reports of the wonders being brought to the surface.  And Jim, as the young ace photographer for the Tribune, was sent off to Key West to cover the story.  As luck would have it, when he checked into the salvage office, none other than Mel Fisher himself was there, on the radio to the salvage fleet.  "Today is the Day!" was always his mantra, and as it turned out for both Jim and the salvagers, it truly was the day.  Huge bars of silver had just been brought to the surface.  Mel was taking a boat out to the site  and he offered to give Jim a ride out with him.  What a thrill!  My own husband had the chance to photograph Spanish silver breaking the surface for the first time in over 300 years.  How cool is that?

Now, on to the stitching part of the story...if you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there!

I've been thinking for awhile now that I would love to do a Florida themed sampler, but couldn't find anything that didn't have flamingos and flip-flops all over it, much less looked like the sort of antique sampler I usually fall for  Then I happened to find this illustration of the Atocha   and it got the wheels turning in my head...

  

Where had I seen this before in all my stitching treasure?  A quick deep sea dive through the closet turned up this lost artifact:

See the similarity?  

My plan is to use most of the original design as is, but substitute the wording with an acknowledgement of the Atocha.  I'll also change the date and the names of the ships to those in the Atocha fleet,

And best of all, I spent this afternoon plundering for booty in the depths of my stash.  I don't think those drab Prairie Schooler colors suit what I've got in mind, so I salvaged around and came up with a palette of Hand-Dyed Fibers that says "Gulf of Mexico".  I may just choose the specific colors as I go, but at least now everything is kitted and ready to set sail.  What do you think?

I can't wait to get started - after all, today is the day!

Blood, Sweat and Tears

At long, long last.....Frances Burwell is done!!

As I was putting the final stitches in her last night, I realized even though she was reaching her finish, she'll carry with her  - as most tangled relationships do - a bit of my blood, sweat and tears from now on.  Let me explain....

One of the mishaps I had along the way with Frances was spotting the left side of the linen with a drop of blood.  It happened when I picked her up too soon after checking my blood sugar levels.  I've spared the gory details by cropping the spot out of the picture, but it doesn't take much imagination to know what my reaction was upon finding it.  Fortunately, the spot is far enough to the edge that it will never be seen on a framed piece.  Now I can say it's been marked for posterity with my own DNA ...

 

These little structures in Miss Frances' neighborhood remind me of the picnic shelters in the park where I walk during cool weather.  When I first started my morning jaunts, I was only putting in a mile or two.  But by the time summer arrived and I had to retreat back to my treadmill, I was distancing 5 miles at a stretch, returning  to my stitching out of breath and more than a little bit sweaty.  I'm sure Miss Frances carries traces of my walks, just like the walks themselves were spent thinking about how work was going with her. 

And tears...

I began Miss Frances during Halley's turbulent first year at college.  I remember feeling so glad for her bright colors; they offset the worries I stitched into her.  Perhaps that's why her satin pansies got so laborious and complicated. Other sadnesses have occurred since then - family losses and employment uncertainties - so Miss Frances carries her share of tears as well.

With all the blood, sweat and tears that have become a part of her fabric, Frances' bottom lines, or maybe the lack there of, are the most sentimental part of the entire piece for me..  The original Miss Frances worked her first name there and then moved on.    Just like what lies ahead, she left it for me to decide what comes next..