Wednesday 2nd August - Cross Stitch Collaboration and other things

 Ang's cross stitch arrived today. I knew she was going to do something concerning tartan; we both have Scottish connections, Ang by birth and me by marriage. I wasn't expecting anything as elaborate as this!

This is ingenious in so many ways; joining the two tartans on the diagonal was a very clever idea. Her's is the one with the yellow stripe. Then, she did the warp threads as half a cross stitch, and the weft as the other half to get an authentic tartan appearance. Finally she did some test pieces so work out how many strands to use; experimentation proved that 6 strands the underneath half stitches and 3 on the stitches top half stitches resulted in completely covering the aida without making it too stiff. I am totally amazed!

Here's mine which went through several iterations of simplification as the end of the month drew near. I could have filled in all the white lozenges too; indeed I would have, but I realized that I would struggle to complete them so decided to stop at the point I had reached. The starting point was looking at illuminated initials in medieval manuscripts.

This is on what will be Ang's piece of aida once we complete the collaboration.   

I'm continuing with the pen and ink exercises, doodles and sketches. All still pen control exercises, and I am trying to incorporated them into the sketches;

I'm left-handed, so I start at the right hand side of the page to avoid smudging as I go along.

I was out in the garden this morning (when it was briefly summer) trying to work out how to follow the plan; this month I am supposed to sow carrots into section, or pot, number 8, but it was already full of carrots that I had wilfully sown months ago! I solved the problem by finding another pot, filling it with earth enriched with pelleted chicken manure and labelling it with an 8! 

The lettuces survived the night so the copper tape must be working. There were paw prints in the cauliflowers and spring onions! Either next door's cat, or possibly the semi-urban foxes that we are plagued with. I've put cloches on them for now, and Himself has moved the electronic fox deterrent thingy to emit its high frequency sound in their direction. 

It occurs to me that crop rotation could simply become a matter of moving all the labels to new pots every year...