Let us flash back a bit today, call it a flash back Friday, shall we? I heard you say okay, so let’s get on.
Growing up in our home, mama had this wall hang placed up at one of the corners in the living room. She often told me stories of how good she was at her embroidery class that at one time, a visiting nun was so impressed by her skill that she chose to teach her the art of cross stitching. That is how this piece of ‘The Church’ came about.
As time went by, its position in our living room was slowly replaced by other things owing to the dynamics of time and family life. ‘The Church’ was slowly pushed out, and eventually found a place in the store, buried deep among the archives.
Several years later, mama dug it out and carried out works of restoration on it. That’s when a curious Janet started interrogating it.
Janet saw that the background used was jute fabric. She wondered how now?
Jute is a woven fabric made from the skin of the jute plant or sisal fibres which may sometimes be combined with other vegetable fibres. This means that it is a natural fabric. One of its inherent qualities is its durability, no wonder mama was able to retrieve it intact after so many years.
Hessian fabric is a slightly refined version of jute. It appears more chic and is available in different colours, though the characteristic attributes are that of the jute fabric.
Hessian is my choice of fabric. I enjoy exploring the hessian fabric as it presents endless possibilities. Since it is a woven textile, it is made up of vertical and horizontal strands of threads (namely warps and wefts respectively) that interlock evenly to make up the material.
In counted cross stitch, every warp and every weft counts. An individual stitch is made by counting single strands of the material and passing thread over one, two, three, four or even five strands of processed sisal or vegetable fibres.
Every strand of the fabric matters and so does every addition or subtraction of a strand, without which the end result would look shabby, but with which every stitch made contributes to the wholeness of the image. I rest my case.
JANET'S YARN CRAFT 