The traditional gift for the seventh wedding anniversary is linen or wool. I was thrilled to learn this, but quickly remembered our anniversary gifts are about the two of us: about togetherness and our union, not about each of us individuals. So I modified my dream of crates and crates of yarn to something more symbolic and attainable.
I temporarily entertained a couple of other fantasies: a fairly-traded, hand-woven, wool rug, or matching Aran sweaters (that I would knit myself), but quickly let both of these go too. The first one for cost, and the second one for time. Instead I settled on something for our home, something that incorporated our name, and something that wouldn't take me six months to complete.
Per the suggestion of a good friend, I modified the wedding monogram pattern from A Rainbow of Stitches to include just one initial, in this case an "O" for our shared last name. It is a counted cross-stitch design, stitched with white embroidery thread on natural, undyed linen. And I am so very happy with the end result.
I am not sure how I want to display this. The book showed the final piece unframed, but pulled over canvas stretchers. I may go with a traditional frame - with so many little people about I would worry too much about the spills and splatters that could happen, not to mention the, ahem, dust factor.
So far I have only located one other blogger that has completed this project. You can see her work here.
7 comments:
you need to show me how to do this!! because damn!
Give me a call if you decide to frame it the traditional way. I did that for a living once or twice in some past lives. I can show you how to stretch it and mount onto foam core.
So, so lovely. Too bad though that the crates and crates of wool didn't work out. :)
Really beautiful Beth and such a sweet idea for an anniversary gift!
Wow. What a great project!! You are so talented. Could you put it on the canvas stretcher and then put it in a memory box for the child/dust factor? Then when you life is not so, uh, messy (can you ever envision that again? I can't for me) you can put it on the wall the way you always wanted to. :)
This is incredible! I mean, amazing. I'm terribly impressed and can't wait to see what you decide to do with it!
Hello there. I love how you changed the wedding monogram pattern. Just wondering what embroidery thread you used and how many strands? I have to same pattern but am a little intimidated to start it. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks so much!
I did the main design in two threads, with the straight lines in one. I used regular DMC floss, in a bright white. With the brown linen background the cream colors looked too yellow. As for suggestions on how to modify the pattern I would start with either the left or right side and work towards the middle. Stop the exterior work a couple rows from the middle, finish off your initial, and then resume the exterior work being careful to create a mirror image as you go. I had to do some free design work to make it all line up, but since the pattern is so busy my additions fit right in. Once you have the symmetry figured out, and centered in your initial, you can resume using the pattern for the other side.
I also framed it in a traditional shadow box - it is a bit dark, but the white floss stands out nicely. Feel free to e-mail me directly with any other questions! bethmocallaghan@gmail.com
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