Ehrman flora and fauna
What seems like a million Christmas’s ago, both Ma and my in-laws bought me an Ehrman tapestry kit. The first cushion is Three Tulips Blue. The second is Beautiful Sheep.
Inspired by my second cousin, I really wanted to make some beautiful tapestry cushions for our home. She has made it her life’s work to furnish her church with beautiful tapestry kneelers for each pew.
Her work is stunning. Sadly I don’t have pictures I can share with you. But needless to say, I wanted a little piece of the action.
A flying start
So the kits were unwrapped and a beautiful stitching frame ordered. Off I went with wool and needle in hand to create my own mini masterpieces.
Only I faltered and dawdled. Shilly shallied and procrastinated.
Time passed and very little was done.
I started with the sheep cushion and felt a huge sense of achievement if I completed one section. But each section took an age.
I set goals to try to motivate myself to get them done, but nothing worked.
A lightbulb moment
And then it dawned on me.
Whilst I love the finished pieces, I don’t actually enjoy the doing of tapestry.
It’s fiddly. And faffy. And the multitude of different yarns required are more difficult to manage than a basket of kittens.
You have to have really good clear lighting to be able to differentiate between the colours whilst stitching. In my corner of the world that is daytime only (mood lighting, dontcha know) and possibly every 3rd Wednesday if rain stops and the clouds lift.
The Room of Abandoned Hobbies
And so tapestry is going the way cross stitch did before it. Into the Room of Abandoned Hobbies, probably never to be brought out again.
I love to embroider and hand sew treats such as Luna Lapin. I don’t like managing 10 colours of wool or embroidery floss at a time. And whilst I love a good slow project, which is why I knit, the time it takes me to complete a tapestry or cross stitch project is ridiculous.
Mainly because I don’t find them fun!
I’m cool with that. Because I only have so much time in the day and when I do have time to be creative, I want to be working on something that makes me relaxed and happy.
Selective crafting is a thing. And I’m narrowing the field every time I try something and find it’s not the thing for me (lino printing and pottery on the wheel are also in the Room of Abandoned Hobbies).
The million dollar question
So I suppose that the only unanswered question is….if I find the stitching so uninspiring, who did complete these lovely Ehrman tapestries.
Ma came to the rescue. She kindly relieved me of the wools and canvases, and returned two beautifully stitched cushion fronts that I quickly turned into cushions that add a gentle pop of colour and warmth to our sitting room
Thanks Ma!
Hooray for Ma! They look beautiful xx
I’m so pleased with them.
And so pleased I didn’t have to stitch them. Definitely not my thing!
Magnificently completed by ma! They look wonderful, but I totally understand what you mean about not wanting to spend so much time on them. They take FOREVER!!!!
They take forever when you’re motivated to complete them. I wasn’t and I think hell might have frozen over before I got even the first one done!
They are very beautiful.
Thank you so much. I think so too 😀
Your mother is fantastically talented and I LOVE those pillows. But I’m with you on not wanting to do the stitch work. Not every hobby is for every person. As it is, back at work and with the reno still underfoot, I have not had a chance to spin in months. I know I will get back to it – because it’s a very cool hobby that requires a lot of trial and error that appeals to me – but if I don’t even have time to learn the crafts that really appeal, how can I get into all the others?
This is the thing. I don’t work out in the world and I still don’t have time. So I’m focussing on doing the stuff that really appeals and working on getting better at them.