Winter’s Lament

I keep on mentioning this, but it’s finally time. I finally have a moment to introduce you to my unfinished darling. Winter Queen, by Mirabilia.

This is one of the designs that started it all for me, really. In early 1998 I purchased Garden Verses and Winter Queen. I believe Garden Verses came first. This was back in the days when Lincraft stocked a better range of cross stitch supplies. Had they never stocked Mirabilia, I may never have caught the bug, because Home-Sweet-Home stuff just doesn’t appeal to me (though my taste has since evolved to include an eclectic range).

I started Garden Verses first, but if you remember, that start was doomed. Not long after that, I discovered to my delight… an LNS! I seem to have outgrown that same store now; most of my stash arrives by mail. But back then, it was a magical haven of all things new and glorious. I discovered linen came by the metre, not just in pre-cut pieces wrapped in plastic. After the Garden Verses debacle, that was a huge relief. I purchased some fabric, floss, and beads, took my bounty home, attached the fabric to Mum’s old tapestry frame, and started with enthusiasm.

Everything went swimmingly from the crown down to the waist. When I hit the endless blues and whites of the gown, I stalled. A lot. Over the years between then and now, WQ has re-emerged a number of times, been worked on some more, and then banished to the cupboard once again.

When I really became assimilated into the world of stitching – late 2001, early 2002, I decided that I really should finish WQ before getting crazy with too many other projects (ha!). I pulled her out again and did a lot more on that gown. Then I realised she had bigger issues, and that I didn’t really know what I would do with her if I did finish her. Let me explain:

Fabric colour

Why, oh why did I choose cream linen for this beautiful design that needs white. Or antique white, at the very most. Cream! This is far and away the worst problem, I just don’t like her on this fabric.

Dye lot differences

Hmmm. I have since learned my lesson – buy all the floss needed for a design at the same time. The dyelot differences in the a few of the floss colours are seriously noticeable. For me to be happy, I’d have to unpick a lot of stitching and restitch with one dyelot. Just quietly… that’s not going to happen!

Dirt

Yep, and lots of it. Poor stitching practices (holding onto the scroll bar where the fabric was attached) plus poor storage over a long time, have caused the cream fabric to become really dirty, not to mention a lot of the white stitches now look cream as well. Yes, I know about Orvus. Trust me, I’ve tried everything on this baby. Orvus, Napisan, Woolwash (yes, I know I shouldn’t). Even… {shock, horror}… the washing machine. Yep, I threw her in our front loader, beads and all. ‘Twas for nought though, she’s still just as dirty. The white areas could be frogged and restitched… but see above for how I feel about that. And as far as the fabric goes, well I don’t think it could be fixed at all. Possibly it could be hidden by a close mat if it were ever framed.

So. That’s what’s wrong with WQ. If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a prize. That’s her. I know, she looks not so bad in that pic. Trust me, all those problems look worse in real life.

She weighs on my mind a lot. For a good long time, I felt that if I didn’t finish her, I wasn’t a real stitcher. I finished a lot of small stuff, but nothing big, until Celtic Christmas, and more recently, Waiting For Ships. Finishing those two, and particularly WFS, has eased my mind a little. The other reason I think about her a lot is that I do still really like the design. But restitching the whole thing does not thrill me one bit, given how far I got. So if I turf her, it is very likely she won’t ever hang in my home. But if I don’t turf her, she’ll still never hang in my home. So you see my dilemma!