Color My World

I love the colors in Christinia. They're bright enough to put out your eye. The designer says the original is like this--that it's common for Scottish samplers of the time to use these bright colors. I got some more done this week. Definitely you can't be gloomy while working on it.

I worked on Product of My Needle also--lots of black and yellow. Also a bright sampler.

There's been some talk among needleworkers about getting out their WIP "Bay Samplers." Here's mine. I'm not sure why I set it aside, especially since it uses--yikes--18 different skeins of Silk n Colors, a commodity that has performed better than most stocks, and much better than real estate. It's roughly doubled in price the three or four years since I started the project. I don't dislike the design, although I'm not in love with the fabric. I'm forgetting what I'm using, but it has a muddy mottling that I'm not fond of. And the design's a little too...what? Rudimentary? It's almost as if there was a lot of effort put into the ship and the flags and the rigging and the seven sailors, and then a bunch of other elements were sort of plopped in there. I particularly dislike the mermaid (not shown here) shaped like a kazoo, and also the kazoo-shaped purple-striped fish. But I'm going to finish the darned thing, because it has cute aspects, and the silk is so darned nice, and in my head (only) I have a sampler wall devoted to maritime and beach themes.


Once again, the soundtrack in my head began running when I thought about all the colorful samplers I'm working on these days. "Color My World" was my high school prom's theme (and probably Chicago's worst and sappiest song). What was our other song? Michael Jackson, singing "Ben" I think. Hah! A prom with a rat theme would have been perfect. I didn't go to the prom; it wasn't cool to go to the prom in those days and one certainly didn't DANCE--hard to believe in these days of over the top proms: revealing gowns (in our day prom gowns were pink or blue and long and not form fitting. The sleeves might have been see-through, but the bodice wouldn't have been. We looked more like Doris Day than Beyonce.) I can see my parents' faces if I'd asked for money to rent a hummer limo, and none of us had our own cars either. If you were lucky and old enough, you could borrow the family car; otherwise, someone's mom would drive you to the prom. Anyway, my boyfriend and I skipped the prom and went to the beach and parked in his car. This was his car. My parents disliked him for that car, and also because he had long hair, and they believed he had only one thing on his mind. Ahem. They were right about that of course.

Yesterday when I went to the store, on the way home I passed no fewer than 20 houses in my neighborhood with graduation balloons and parties in progress. Apparently the local high school graduation was yesterday. My next door neighbor hosted a graduation party for their son. We have met the son's girlfriend, who came to our back door at 12:30 a.m. one night, and stealthily tried to enter our house, thinking she was next door. She was surprised when we answered the door (we knew he was hosting a little party while his parents were out of town because we saw the kids sneaking across the back lawn so the neighbors wouldn't notice). We thought it might be fun to stock the end table down there with brochures on contraception and health warnings about STDs for future visits. His parents think he's an angel, of course. They hosted the party yesterday, so we didn't have to pick the beer cans off our lawn this time.

Man, I miss bench seats. I think we can pinpoint the end of civilization at the point that bucket seats were introduced.

Car photos borrowed from Allpar.com.
Mom, can I borrow the car? Sure, Peachy--be home by ten.

I'm off to make Ina's pastitsio. Happy week ahead!