Make it Monday: XXX's and OOO's

The day of showing what I've made. ******

First off - Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. I wish I had a turkey or a pie to show you, but there's no point in making a turkey dinner when I'm alone. So this year, I am not responsible for the death of a turkey. Instead I'll share a hobby that I'm thankful for.

Paula Vaughan's "Thy Word..."

Back when I first started cross stitching, I discovered Paula Vaughan. It was while I went exploring in the first needlework shop I had ever been in. Up until that time I had been working with kits that I sold through a party based business (that's another story which goes into MLM's and how I feel about them now and I do not want to get into that here because then we would be going down a rabbit hole and having tea with the Mad Hatter) and sighing sadly over the lack of DMC thread at the local Lewiscraft, which only sold the most popular colors. Never the right colors for the cross stitch pictures I found in magazines. It's probably why they no longer exist. Not enough DMC. If you're going to sell needlework supplies you have to carry at the very least a full set of DMC. Otherwise don't even bother. And then a friend told me about this little shop located in a house which turns out that too has another story attached to it, but I don't want to get into now because that would be falling through the looking glass and dealing with the Tweedles.

When I walked in the door I was greeted by a man who said "Hi! I'm Hans. Let me show you around." What wonder did my eyes see with all the treasures in front of me. Yes, I did purposely rhyme that. Rows and rows of complex cross stitch patterns, fabrics especially for stitching, a full set of DMC colors, and other threads that at the time I knew nothing about. Those cross stitch patterns were beautiful and they weren't about chickens and geese. It was the 80's. Chickens and geese were everywhere. Especially in the kitchen where they were on your canisters and your curtains, your wallpaper, and your aprons. If you're in a thrift store and you come across canisters with fowl, it came from the 80's. It was like city people wanted to live on a farm in their apartments.

It was here I discovered Paula and her renditions of times long ago when ladies wore long dresses that they made on old Singer sewing machines, and sat on the front porch with cups of tea surrounded by flowers, and left sheets of music on pianos, open books on wicker chairs, or needlework in progress in front of a window.

At the time she didn't portray the women. Instead she showed the things they did, as if the woman who owned them had just stepped away for a moment and would be back. You could look at the things she left momentarily and write a story about her. Paula is not a cross stitch designer. She's an accomplished painter who had a deal with a craft company who took her work and turned it into cross stitch patterns.

This lovely piece has found it's way into craft fairs where it has earned a ribbon or two. Even at that early stage I was being innovative by adding metallic thread to the scissors, and instead of stitching the thread the lady works with, I just added it as a piece of thread making it 3D.

This is one of the few pieces I have that is actually framed. Most of my work is hidden away in a drawer with the promise that one day it will be framed and become part of a wall filled with needlework pieces. I just have to buy that wall. I even signed the back with the date May, 1994. For more of Paula's work you can see it at this Paula Vaughan Art Gallery. There's a biography of her there too. She used to have a website, but I can't find it anymore. And her patterns are hard to find now too. Good thing I have an impressive stash of them. And yes, I did become a Paula Vaughan pattern collector with the idea that somehow magically I could stitch them all. Hey, it's a thing we crafters and readers do. We collect stuff with the idea that as long as we have things to do and books to read, we will never die.