Just Moodling About... My Favourite Things

Stitches in Time

We look at life from the back side of the tapestry.

And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangled knots and the like.

But occasionally, God's light shines through the tapestry,

and we get a glimpse of the larger design

with God weaving together the darks and lights of existence.

~John Piper

"So how many stitches do you reckon there are in one of your really big tapestries, anyway?"

There was no way we could have guessed the angst this calculation required to answer Kanute's idle question.

Out came the tape measure and the calculator-and combined with a great deal of brain strain, we worked it out. The first shock was the realisation there were 100 stitches to the square inch. And then to discover the overall dimensions of my largest masterpiece -

'Shearing the Rams'

... after the famous Tom Roberts' oil painting, totalled a whopping 83,000 stitches! And these were only single diagonal stitches - my choice for pictures that didn't need the strength to stand up to the wear and tear that cushions and seat covers would be expected to endure. Items like these require cross-stitch, or twice the count of mine!

My first ever tapestry depicted a little cowboy astride a fence, strumming his guitar. Begun in my childhood, it was a fairly 'on and off' kind of affair for some years, until finally guilt outweighed my impatience. It lives quietly somewhere, still-out of its frame now-no doubt in a frame desperately needed by a photo demanding a higher priority. Some fortunate (?) descendant of mine may discover it one day, rolled up (and probably rolled to the back of a drawer someplace.

A charming framed tapestry that would have thousands of identical 'siblings' features a dear little church with a tall steeple, nestled on the side of a hill dwarfed by a soaring snow-clad mountain. Made many years ago as a special wedding anniversary present for my parents, it has decorated our own walls for many years now. Totally inappropriate for an Australian home with its Swiss or maybe Bavarian scene, but it evokes many sweet memories. To be honest and brutally frank, I think the canvas was cheap at a time when we were poor 'apprentices', living and learning farming in another State of Australia.

My parents' sentimental natures and great love of me saw it become one of their prized possessions, even when only one was left to live out her days in an elderly citizen's unit. It hung on the wall at the end of her bed,"to see first thing in the morning and last thing at night", she often told me. At that time I was a Careworker and two of my folk lived in serviced rooms at a residential care facility, many miles away. Walking down one of the long passageways there one day, I came to an abrupt halt as I saw 'my' tapestry in its plain white frame, innocently hanging on the wall. My heart pounded hotly in my ears, my scalp and forehead were suddenly bathed in sweat. I thought I might faint. How could she?Why would she? Why not offer it back to me if she didn't want it any longer?

Later that day, at my first opportunity, I visited Mum. And though my spirits were low, my heart heavy, I didn't mention her cruel rejection right away. How could I, after receiving my usual effusive hugs and kisses and affirmations of her great love for me? Instead, I chose a more cowardly approach and made an excuse of needing a visit to her bathroom, so I could see the space on the wall where MY tapestry shouldhave been. Nothing could have prepared me for the fact that it was still there! And next day, when I made an unplanned visit to my 'oldies' home, to check the unthinkable, that one was still there, too. Imagine the odds of the same tapestry being created and framed in the identical frame and style-1600 miles apart, by different people? Stranger than fiction-but true!