It was made by my Grandma many years ago. She was a smart lady, always beautifully co ordinated with beads or a scarf, favouring plain navy or black over colourful prints for her smart clothes, and yet at some moment in her life she created this mad hymn to colour and pattern.
It is stitched on to a red spotted handkerchief which you can just about discern in amongst the dense texture of stitches. The dots are satin stitch and the zig zag border is chain stitch, The rest is a glorious profusion of French knots the like of which I have only ever seen on this cushion cover. They are crammed together in the most exuberant mix of colour and pattern. When I was little and we used to visit her and Big Man George (Grandad by another name) I would gaze at this creation and wonder about it. Strangely I never asked her what had prompted her to make it, a great regret to me now.
I took it in to school the other day to show some students that I had been teaching French knots to, and was delighted by their oooooh's and aaaaah's. I like to think that Grandma would be too.
 |
| French knot mayhem |
 |
| Detail of corner |
No comments:
Post a Comment