Diana's Final Project - Crewelwork

Arts and Crafts in America 

Spring 2017 

Craft Project 

I have such fond memories of family and craft from my childhood.  So much of the female conversation and time spent together on my Dad’s side of the family was accompanied by needlework of some kind.  My grandmother did crochet, and my aunts were always involved in either needlepoint, crewel, or cross-stitch.    My aunts shared their knowledge with me and I was involved in this craft from about age 12 forward.    

In my first year of college, I connected with some art students, and I began creating my own needlework designs for gifts for friends and family.  I continued doing this for quite some time into my 20’s and early 30’s.  Then life got busy with other goals and responsibilities, and I stopped working with this medium.   

This class brought all of those memories and experiences rushing back, and I realized that I had wanted to work in the needlework crafts again.  I have some needlepoint projects from years past which were never finished.  In addition, some that were finished but never framed.  Therefore, I am more motivated to complete these projects from the past. 

When I began to think about what project I wanted to do, I was simultaneously cleaning out my garage in preparation of a move.  I found some things from childhood, and even a crocheted vest that my grandmother had made for me when I was about six.  I also found some of my art from elementary school.  My first idea was to create something from either my childhood or my daughter’s childhood.  I kept leaning towards my own though.  This train of thought caused me to decide on the cloth of denim for the surface of my work, which is representative of the sixties decade.  I was also interested in The Makers book to find out that denim made it's way into America by means of a curious woman doing needlework! 

My main idea was to get back into needlework and to refresh my memory on the different stitches and ways to work.  I found some Persian yarn from decades ago, and I bought some needles, and found my Stitchery book.  I also used google and did a little research first through the internet and at JoAnne’s Fabric store.    

My idea evolved into creating some kind of sampler.  I did not want to plan too tightly and just wanted to experience the medium again.  I was hoping to re learn some different stitches that I used to have memorized.  The first stitches were not planned at all.  In addition, the stitches reminded me of fireworks, which made me think of my son’s July birthday.  Truly, the project idea evolved from some associative thinking.  My denim piece was large enough to accommodate 12 circles.  I thought that I would begin with July fireworks and work my way around the calendar with sample stitches, and seasonal themes.  I want to complete the circles with a kind of abstract representation of the month of the year that I am sewing.  Circles represent time, eternity, and wholeness to me.  A kind of completeness, in the cycles of life – and I like the way that the repetition of the circles look on the denim. 

When I complete this, it will make a nice size “throw” if I finish it by quilting the piece.   I was also thinking of future grandchildren – and something for them to cozy up with while learning the months of the year and the seasons of the year.  That is a future thought though – I am not a grandparent yet.   

My first challenge was threading the needle!  Seriously – this was a problem.   My eyesight and my finger dexterity is not what it used to be – I am in my fifties – and aging is not for the faint hearted!  I bought several kinds of needles, and still was having issues.  Until, I humbled my pride and went to JoAnne’s Fabrics and asked for help.  I had even tried to use those “needle threaders”, and had watched a YouTube video – still with no success.  A kind older woman at the store showed me how to use a cut up and folded post it note to solve my issue of getting the yarn threaded through the needle!  Eureka!   Then I was off to be able to work on this project.  I did some research and found that a darning needle would best fit my needs for the crewelwork.   

I have not completed as much as I had hoped to by the end of the course.  Cleaning, remodeling, painting a house, and moving my kids and me to a new place for the whole month of April and into May, interfered with my progress.   

I am going to stick with the idea of the 12 circles representing the 12 months of the year, and viewing this as a sampler.  I have never quilted before – my only experience with quilting came from finishing an edge of a postage stamp quilt that was handed down in the family.   I have an aunt that can help me with the quilting part in the future.   My goal was to complete as many circles as possible during the course of the class.  My eldest daughter and son in law just bought their first home – and it is a beautiful four bedroom on a half-acre of wooded land.  They are planning on children – maybe more than I realized!  Therefore, my hope is to have this project completely finished and ready for the first grandchild! 

 

Working at the old house

Beginning stitches

Fireworks in July

Working in our new home!

Second circle represents Water in August