So after Age is Irrelephant was finished, of course I had to pick a new focus project, and because you know me, you also know it had to be another gift with a crazy deadline! At least not as crazy as the last one, though. I first started Fans of The Far East as a New Year's Start in 2017, intending to finish it as a present for my grandma's 85th birthday in March of that year. To say the least, that was *very* ambitious, and I never managed to even finish the first of three fans before than. This is the last time you've seen it on my blog, and that's a couple years ago too!
Since then, I've picked it up a couple of times, but never enough to actually post about it. But now I did the math and...my grandma's 90th birthday is coming up next March, and now, with a couple months more than last time, maybe I can actually finish it this time! I've been working on it a bit over the last week or two, and this is where I got to:
I mostly worked on the border - the leftmost six columns of leaves are new - and started the outline of the pink fan. (You can also see that I messed up centering a little here...the lower edge frayed really bad, which is why I put the tape on there. It's not perfect, but I don't trust my sewing to properly secure it! If it doesn't fray any further, I'll just barely have two inches of a border, so it'll work, I just need to be very careful.
So, some basic info on this, as it's been a while - this design is by Joan Elliott, from her 'Oriental Odyssey' book. It's about 320 stitches wide and 130 stitches high. There are three pretty fans side by side, plus the leafy border that goes all the way around - I'll have to figure out a way to alternate stitching on the fans and the border, so I don't have to do all those leaves in the end! I'm stitching this with DMC on 32ct white evenweave, and really enjoy working on it, so I'm excited to be back!
This is one of the projects I started before using timers, so my total time here is quite inaccurate. It currently shows about 20 hours, but that only covers the difference between the two pictures above. I think I have quite some work cut out for me, but I want to see if I can make it, because my grandma does love this design and it would make a great gift for her.
6 comments:
I had forgotten about this one. I am glad to see it again. I think it is gorgeous.
Oh, this will be a stunning gift for your grandmother, Leonore! I hope you really do concentrate on it and get it done soon. Will look forward to watching it grow :)
I remember this design. I bought the book intending to stitch the geishas. That was early on in my embroidery journey when I only did cross stitch :) I should take the book out again, there were some beautiful designs in there.
What a great idea to inspire you to complete this one!
Lovely. And now you can ignore my question on who designed it. I should have read oldest to newest. :-)
How lovely to see an older WIP becoming a focus piece. It's gorgeous, and since you have a deadline to meet we'll no doubt see quick progress. :)
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