Since the last post that I did on stitching the Ukrainian Wedding Rushnyk, I have made a lot of progress. Well, to be honest…….I am now totally finished the stitching! And, I must say, “what a project”. I do not think I could ever do this again!
Here it is….the last stitch!
Just a bit of a recap here. On November 6th., 2016, I started cross-stitching a Wedding Rushnyk. See Ukrainian Wedding Rushnyk
I kept at it and kept you informed. See Still Stitching !
Take a good look however and see the change I made on the top and lower border. I decided in the last month to not stitch the roses on the border but chose a less complicated and fewer stitches band design. It’s not as busy looking but most importantly, I have not been blinded by this project.
Seriously. I found that my eyesight was rapidly deteriorating and I just couldn’t do any more.
My Man helped me out by setting up the brightest lights for me. I went to see my optometrist and had prescription eyeglasses made. But I knew that if I didn’t change-up the pattern, I would not be able to complete it.
I chatted with my friends and even my neighbour came over to see what my dilemma was. She totally agreed with me and helped me choose a complimentary design. I’m so grateful for her because I was feeling very overwhelmed and had the feeling that I was “chickening” out of my project. See Rushnyk update #3
Want to hear what I find really strange? I completed the very last stitch on My Man and my wedding anniversary. To my way of thinking, it was meant to be because I sure didn’t plan it this way. But wait, I was not quite finished yet.
Next thing that I had to do was to wash the entire cloth. Even though I had washed my hands and kept my work space clean, oil from my hands did get on the cloth. I had read somewhere that one had to be very careful about washing a project. Sometimes the colours of the thread bled. Great, I thought. The last thing I needed now was to have the red and black colours run into each other.
Once again I asked around to seek advice from anyone who looked or sounded knowledgeable about cross-stitch. So much information on the internet and some I knew I shouldn’t believe.
It was at my church where I found the best advice. I knew I could trust these Ukrainian women because they had recently stitched dance outfits for their grandchildren. Their advice? Ice cold water for the first wash; ice-cold water for a second wash but add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to the water; do not rub stitches or wring out; lay flat on fluffy white towel to dry. It worked!
This Rushnyk has been stitched with love for my niece. Even when I felt like quitting, I thought of her and her future husband. This stitching was very hard at times. Have I mentioned that there are over 68,000 stitches?
As I stitched, I thought about how hard a marriage can be as well.
Every little step of married life is a journey. Each day needs to be worked on with great care and kindness to each other. Just like the stitching of this Wedding Rushnyk, there needs to be a plan and an exciting pattern to follow. Of course, just like stitching, there will be knots to untie, threads to untangle and even tears to shed from time to time. But eventually, a life-long design will emerge.
So here it is! Once again I thank all of you who followed along with me and encouraged me to keep going, one stitch at a time.
The ads displayed at the bottom of this post are inserted by Word Press. These ads have not been selected by Petrosha and are not endorsed by petroshasblog.wordpress.com.
petrosha's blog 