Tomorrow is a big day for me. It is the first day of August which at my house means it is the opening of what I think of as “crochet season,” or more specifically, crochet season 2016.
As such, a lot of things that would normally be “front-burner” projects will be cast aside until noon on October 10, the absolute final deadline for this year’s project.
There is always the ever-so-slight possibility that I will get my work done before then, but it is ever so slight.
This afternoon while I ruminated on last year’s project — which I didn’t finish and — which has, of necessity, become this year’s project, I got a great idea for how to finish the center.
An incredibly detailed and time consuming idea that would, if it worked, be spectacular.
Of course, I have no idea if it would work.
But I am not about to set aside my dreams for this project because I don’t know, so late this afternoon while my youngest son started dinner, I pulled out the bin where I had kept all of the pieces over the past ten months:
took off the lid:
and inspected my work from last year.
First up were these four corners:
which were inspired by a card table tablecloth my grandmother had embroidered:
Now that I have had almost a year to reflect on it, I’d really like to redo the heart, spade, club, and diamond to get a more polished look.
Next, I pulled out the top and bottom center panels:
The clock is based on this clock that was given to my grandparents as a wedding gift:
With more than nine months to reflect on it, I realize that I have to figure out some way to add the numbers and hands to the clock. It will be tricky and at times tedious, but it will also be the right thing to do.
As for the piano keyboard, I am happy with it as it is.
Next up were these two panels that depict the glass water tumblers that once belonged to my great-great grandmother Hill, but which now belong to me:
and I decided that there was nothing I could do to make them any better.
That left me with a pile of granny squares that I have not yet used, and these two pieces which will be an important element of the center panel:
There is still a lot of detail work to be done, but I am hopeful that this year, I will be able to finish this piece in memory of a grandmother I never knew:
