Monday, February 4, 2008

Sous-Stitcher

I'm doing the prep work for a project. I guess that makes me a sous-stitcher (ya know, like a sous-chef in the kitchen!) The hand-dyed floss is beautiful, and I love the variations apparent in the finished work. However, look closely at the label. See the two scary words? You can almost hear the knell of doom: "not colorfast." Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, baby, it tolls for thee. (John Donne gets the credit for that line--but I added the baby part.)
Some of you know exactly what that means: something so beautiful could just ruin the thing it's creating. So it's time to wash. And blot. And hang to dry. And (eventually) wind it on a card so it won't tangle while it's waiting to be stitched. All so I can sew this: Okay.