16 October, 2012

View from a Village

I'm back! Not that I really went anywhere but I had a small operation, came down with a cold, made it through one week of school holidays and went away for the second. Sounds busy but actually at least two weeks of it involved me feeling sorry for myself and sitting in bed a lot. Now I'm on a drive to get the kitchen wallpapering finished and the hallway spruced up with a coat of paint so we can put the house on the market in a couple weeks. Add in a few handmade Christmas presents and some clothes for me and some for Hazel, including a hat that is needed urgently, and the next month is looking rather busy! I think it'll be ok and even if I can't take proper photos of Christmas presents I can at least put up artistic ones.

I've been working on this cross stitch since the Olympics - I thought I'd get it done by the closing ceremonies but didn't make it, and then it languished as I wrestled with amigurumi and other crochet stuff.

Village

The design comes from a neat little cross stitch book, Cross Stitch Patterns by Misako Murayama, that came with a Gerda Bengtsson book I wanted on Trade Me. As it turns out, it was much more fun that the Bengtsson one so I was quite pleased. It reminds me a bit of the book I had when I was learning to cross stitch as a kid, so it's kind of nostalgic.

IMG_0984
Copyright 1976 by Ondorisha Publishers ISBN 0-87040-374-5

The colours came as a bit of a surprise when I started, though it shouldn't have considering I saw all the floss together when I bought it! The book's colours are quite different, much more muted. But I quite like the insane brightness.

Untitled

When I searched for it online to see if I could learn a bit more about it, or the author, I got a bit of a shock at the prices that were being asked for it - Amazon sellers had it for $45+, Alibris had it from $73-314. Wow. I payed $10 for two books, so essentially $5. I felt quite proud of myself for scoring such a rare book accidentally, although $314 seemed a bit crazy. I mentioned to Heleen that I was doing an embroidery from this particular book, and from my vague description of the patterns "70s, Japanese, colourful" she popped out of the room and returned with her copy, which cost her all of $2 in a second hand book store! Needless to say the $314 seems even more ridiculous now - where do they pull these prices out from? I'll refrain from suggesting a place because I might get unwanted hits on my blog from Google searches ;)

After I took these photos I stupidly left the hoop lying on the spare bed, and Lucy the cat promptly slept on it, put a claw through it, and got it dirty. Luckily none of the damage is permanent, but I'll have to wash it and will probably put it in a smaller hoop to hang on the wall. Cats!

18 comments:

  1. Hope youre feeling heaps better and what a score! Its just lovely Jacqui :)

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  2. This is beautiful Jacqui just beautiful !! !! Definitely a great score. Hope you are on the mend

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  3. It's cool. Great colours.

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  4. Glad to have you back here:) You're really inspiring me, I think your colours look nicer than the book's! Good luck with the paint job and everything else; are you also planning to make a Washi dress? hehehe.

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  5. Thanks! I'm feeling pretty much a-ok these days and I'm not allowed to get sick until after the house is ready to sell. Then I can get the plague :)

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  6. Thank you! Yes, I'm feeling much better in all directions :)

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  7. I'd love to see something else made from it! Hazel is very keen to make something from the book too, she wants to do the H in the alphabet sampler.
    No Washi dress! I can't even describe how awful I'd look in that style, despite it being all the rage. Too preggy-top for me! I'm going to make the tunic from the most recent woman's Ottobre, it's much less puffy below the bust and has a more tailored look. I'll try and put in a photo for you

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  8. so adorable! i'll be keeping my eyes open for that one when i'm thrift-shopping.

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  9. It's funny how the 70s colours are back in again, I probably would have recoiled in horror at this 10 years ago!

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  10. Those designs are fantastic. It looks like a colour blindness test - I think I can see a capital B in there somewhere.

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  11. Lovely cross stitch - I love the bright colours. Hope you are feeling better.

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  12. I'm so glad I remembered I saw this post (you know when you think "which blog did I see that on?") as I was just getting something out of the sewing cupboard and I found this! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cross-Stitch-Ondori-Publishing-Company/dp/0870405063 I must have got it years ago, prob at an op shop. Could find a better pic of it, sorry for the Amazon link! I'd just stashed it with all the cross stitch stuff, I cross stitched only for about 20yrs from my teens onwards. Might be pulling some of it out soon!

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  13. Wowsers. I've just been hunting the Internet for this book so I can teach my daughter to cross-stitch, and all I can find are the three-figure copies. I'm going to try squinting very very hard at Google Images and counting the tiny squares to make some of these pretty pictures a reality without the book.

    I love that you and your friend both scored copies for peanuts, especially as you're actually USING the book to make something. And really, the point of this whole comment is to say what an incredibly beautiful piece of embroidery it is that you've made. It's wonderful.

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  14. That cross-stitch is gorgeous, really colourful! I just look on Amazon UK for copies, only found two copies of Cross Stitch patterns Bk 2 - each for just over £1000!!!!!

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  15. That looks so beautiful stitched up! I have this book, too, and four other Ondoris (I didn't pay more than 5 dollars for any of them), and they're incredibly fun to stitch from! Seeing your finished version of this is nice, as it seems much livelier and prettier than the one in the book's photograph. Even if it's been a year, congrats on the finish!

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  16. Yikes! I know I looked at copies of that one when I searching for info on my book and it was much cheaper than the first one - maybe I should have bought it then!

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  17. Thank you! I still really enjoy it up on the wall :)

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