Trio of Cats Gobelin Picture

Midnight in Winter was not the first picture I did from the Gobelin Company. This picture claims that spot! As I think I may have mentioned, I love cats and this picture ticked all the 'cute' buttons as far as I was concerned!

Again, I can't remember when I started it but on the back of the picture I have written the date I finished it ....... May 1984.

It was soon after completing this that I started the Midnight in Winter and discovered an awlful fact ...... I had made a rather fundamental error in doing this picture! I should have used 3 strands of stranded thread but I only used 2! Don't ask me how I mis-read the instructions, but there you go!!! I don't think anyone else notices the mistake ....... but you can see if you look closely that the thread coverage is not as good as it could be and some of the fabric shows through, especially in the areas of the dark thread.

Still! Never mind! Live and learn ...... and I still like the picture!!

This picture is still available from the Gobelin company (just search on their site for 'cats'). By the way, it measures 31 x 27 cm. At the moment, this kit is being sold for just over 57 Euros which seems like a lot of money. However, I think their kits are very good quality. The picture is worked from a chart which is very clear to use. The fabric is lovely to work with and you are given plenty of materials [Yes ...... I know! ....... I would have plenty left over since I didn't use enough strands :) However, with Midnight in Winter, done correctly(!) there were more than enough threads to complete the picture!].

This was the very first kit I ever did from a printed chart on non-painted fabric and I thought it was marvellous to slowly see the picture 'develop' from the black and white printed chart into a vibrant picture.

Midnight In Winter

My thanks go to RosyTint for suggesting on another post that I try photographing the picture by laying it on the floor. That suggestion works a treat!

So ..... here is probably the picture I am most proud of! It certainly took a long time to do. I think I started it in 1984 and I finished it towards the end of 1991. However, I wasn't doing it solidly during this time! Being entirely made up of different shades of blue or white, I got fed up with it a few times and did other things!

Still ...... a chunk just underneath the left-most sheep was done whilst I was in the early stages of labour when my son was born in November 1990 ....... although I can't detect any tension changes in the stitches in that bit :)

Photographing Needlework

Although it is my husband, John, who is the photographer in the family, I thought I'd have a go at photographing some of my needlework pictures yesterday.

In particular, I tried to photograph the picture I am most proud of. This is a very large gobelin stitch needlepoint picture which I think was called 'Midnight in Winter'. It is a kit I got from the Gobelin Company based in Germany. They don't supply this particular picture any more so unfortunately I can't check the name and I didn't keep the counted chart pattern ...... well, I'm not going to do it again, that's for sure!

I fell in love with the picture the minute I saw it in the catalogue but it is a biggie! It's 72 cm deep and 43cm wide and on quite fine count fabric, requiring 9 stitches per cm. Mind you, with these particular kits, one gobelin stitch is actually two physical stitches, so really it's 18 stitches to the cm. It is completely done in different shades of blue from the very darkest blue-black to off-white and white itself, and it shows some sheep in a field, with the silhouette of a tree to one side, all illuminated by a full moon.

However, photographing it proved to be difficult! Although it is framed behind non-reflective glass, I could still see reflections of the windows behind me. I tried everything! Standing to one side improves things but it is more difficult than I thought!

I'd also like to try to photograph stitches up close ........ but I can see this will also be a challenge!

I will have to search on the Internet for advice!