Friday Finish: Plum Blossoms

Yes, you read that right. It’s really done! Endless background and all!

Design: Plum Blossoms (an EGA correspondence course)

Designer: Margaret Kinsey

Technique: Rozashi

Ground fabric: Ro (a Japanese fabric)

Threads: silk, metallic, and silk/metallic combo

Stitches used: All vertical stitches (which is the nature of Rozashi)

Stitching timeframe: I have no idea when this was started. I posted about it being in progress back in December 2007, so I’m guessing maybe 2005? Finished Wednesday, June 9, 2010. Pathetic.

But it’s done in time to send it in for evaluation! Hooray!

Almost ready to give up

I have been stitching for at least an hour each night on the background of my Rozashi piece, Plum Blossoms.

Wait. Let me back up. I originally took this course through either my local EGA chapter or through the CyberStitchers chapter a few years ago. This year, CyberStitchers decided to offer it again, so I re-registered, thinking that might give me the motivation to finish it and send it in for evaluation.

Being that CyberStitchers has members all over the world, managing correspondence courses is a little more troublesome than in a face-to-face chapter. A coordinator is assigned for each course, just like in a “normal” chapter. That coordinator is the main contact between the teacher and the chapter. The difference is that in a normal chapter, the interactions between members and the coordinator can happen in person. Not so with a cyber chapter. All of those interactions (distributing kits and instructions, collecting finished pieces, and redistributing pieces back from evaluation) have to be accomplished via mail. The mailing times (student to coordinator, coordinator to teacher) have to be considered.

So, when does my Plum Blossoms have to be done, you ask? Umm… well… it’s due to the teacher (Margaret Kinsey) by the end of the month. Yes, this month. June. Which means that the coordinator wants them by June 15. As in 10 days from now. Which means I’ve got less than a week to get my butt in gear and finish this thing.

Then again, maybe I don’t. As one of my stitchy friends pointed out, I could just send it in incomplete, since there’s more than enough finished for evaluation of each technique.

But I know myself. If I don’t get it done now, using this deadline as motivation, it will likely come back from the evaluation and go back into the WIP pile, maybe seeing the light of day again in a year. Or more. And it will still look like it does now.

 

That said, I’m really sick of it. Maybe I’m supposed to be getting into some zen place or something with the repetition, but all I know is that I keep stitching and stitching and not seeing much progress. Does anybody enjoy stitching background like this? Why? Can you give me hints as to how to approach it so that it doesn’t seem like a chore?

Of course, I’m not at all sorry I decided to try Rozashi. As I’ve said before, I believe that everything you do with needle and thread improves everything else you do with needle and thread. I encourage anyone who’s at all curious about various ethnic techniques to try it. I just hope you’re able to find more enjoyment in stitching background than I am. :-)

Gotta go. I have background to stitch.

Unending background on Plum Blossoms

Unfortunately, stitching away on never-ending background doesn't make for decent blog content. Fortunately, I am making progress on Plum Blossoms.

(Oh, and thanks go to Susan for the hint on making my Japanese needle cease squeaking. I didn't have any fine sandpaper, but an emery board worked in a pinch. I made sure the needle kept spinning so it didn't get any flat edges. Thanks, Susan!)

In the past week, PB has gone from this:

To this:

While I'm very glad to be making progress on this, I need to break up the monotony a bit. I may pull out one of my other 4 goal pieces to get a little bit of variety in. Anybody want to vote for which one?

WIP: Plum Blossoms (by Margaret Kinsey)

Today's featured WIP is Plum Blossoms, an EGA Correspondence Course designed by Margaret Kinsey.

Technique/Materials:  This is a Japanese technique called Rozashi. This technique involves all vertical stitches on Ro fabric, which is a unique weave consisting of approximately 40 holes to the inch horizontally and 13 holes to the inch vertically. Most of the threads are twisted silks, but one is a silk twisted with a metallic thread, and one is gold metallic. In a very brief search, I found one website with a brief overview of Rozashi. The ANG website has an article with even more information.

Background:  I believe I started this three or four years ago as a course with the CyberStitchers chapter of EGA. The kit came with the fabric pasted very tautly (using a traditional rice paste) to the stretcher bars.

Why it's not done:  This is going to sound like the dumbest excuse in the book. I've already mentioned the tautness of the fabric. The kit also came with a handmade Japanese needle, which has a round eye designed to work really well with the twisted silks. As with any embroidery technique, the purpose of the needle is to open up the holes in the fabric to minimize abrasion on the thread. Well, when you combine really taut fabric with a needle that's a tiny bit bigger than the holes in that fabric, you end up with a pretty loud squeak every time the needle is passed through the fabric. It drove DH nuts. I ended up working on this when he went to his weekly dart league. When the dart season ended that year, Plum Blossoms faded into obscurity. (See? I told you it was dumb! Feel free to post your dumbest WIP excuse in the comments so we can all have a laugh and I can feel better.)

What's left to do:  The only thing left is the background! The first piece of good news is that I've again signed up for this course through CyberStitchers, so I have a second chance to submit the project for evaluation next year. This is good incentive! The second bit of good news is that we're in the middle of another dart season. Hmm... perhaps Wednesday evenings will find another WIP in the mix!