This is a 'made my deadline' post. I know it's kind of strange to have a triumphal march through the lounge room just because I ticked off 'year 2' of my ten-year project. But I am. Having a triumphal march that is.There are a few small gaps but basically I have made it to the second mark in the sidebar of the tapestry. Just in time. This Saturday, I'm off to join in the annual tapestry weekend with my guild friends. I don't drag this enormous thing to my classes, so none of them have seen it in the last twelve months. I'll be interested to see what they are up to and I'm sure they'll be curious to see my progress as well.
I find this tapestry kind of mesmerizing and therapeutic. It is so rhythmic. A bit like knitting. Back and forth, back and forth. Large swathes of the same stitch.
I sat through many hours of Lewis and Clark and the Forsythe Saga while I stitched this. In the process, I taught myself how to do the fine oblique slav from the top downwards. It is a stitch designed to be filled in from the bottom up. Because I use the DSL method of stitching, working from the bottom is hard to integrate. So, I felt pleased once I could see enough of the pattern to reverse it. I can now stitch completely across the row from one edge of the tapestry to the other side picking up and starting each of the colours and stitches as I go along. Rather pleased with that. There is still an awful lot of water to stitch, though year 3 sees me getting to start on some of the figures and their hats!
Previous posts
The Ferry (September 2012)
Back to the Ferry (May 2012)
The Ferry tapestry - progress after Tapestry Guild weekend (October, 2011)
The Ferry tapestry - the 2011 September Tapestry weekend (Sept 2011)
The Ferry - E.Phillips Fox - Baxtergraphix Tapestry (April 2011)