An embroidery design I always liked was in patchwork format: squares and rectangles, each featuring a seasonal image with lines of cross stitch separating them. The design was entitled “The Holly and the Ivy”, and these were depicted in two of the “patches”. Others showed candles, a Christmas pudding, wrapped gifts, a snowflake, etc.
One square bothered me: it just featured outlines of two misshapen stars. The design was pointless. Bland and colourless. The last time I worked this chart I replaced the stars with my own design of a little Christmas tree — which was OK, but hardly inspiring. It looked neat, and I didn’t want neat: I wanted something with a bit of character.
This time I charted a head-and-shoulders image of a snowman in a battered black hat and striped red, blue and grey scarf. He fitted exactly into the allotted space, and everything seemed to be coming along nicely, but I wasn’t satisfied. I liked his smug, cheeky expression: head on one side, disjointed nose, a lopsided grin …. So what was wrong ? Then I realised: I added half a line of black stitching to give the impression of the hat pulled down over one eye. That was just what was needed: he was now a “character”, disreputable and jaunty. And all done with three and a half stitches !
