pretty balls of pearl cotton

I called my favourite local needlework shop yesterday to check whether they had the balls of DMC pearl cotton that I wanted. As they did, and it was a rainy day I decided to catch bus to the train station, rather than walking. I checked the bus timetable, and found that the bus would be going past in about a minute!

I quickly grabbed my needlework, my scissors and some supplies (gotta have something to do on the train!), my CD backups of my book that go everywhere with me, my umbrella… all the things I’d need. Or so I thought.

On closing the front door behind me I had a horrible thought. MY KEYS! I felt my pockets, and the pockets in my bag where I would have put them, but they weren’t there. Given that it was only 9:30am, I had a long, wet day ahead of me, locked out of the house. Fortunately I had my wallet with me, so all was not lost. At least that meant I’d be able to buy some lunch somewhere!

Feeling rather deflated, off I went on the bus to the train station, and sitting on the seat waiting for the train, I felt around in my bag for my needlework. Instead, I brought out the CDs, and heard a slight tinkle. My keys! In grabbing the CDs, my keys were obviously with them (they travel as a set these days) and I just chucked them into the same pocket – not the pocket I ever usually put the keys in. Thank you God!

Down at my favourite local needlework shop, I picked up the three balls of coloured pearl cotton that I needed. The shop assistant and I were both surprised how bright the blue is (DMC 796), though it didn’t look quite so luminous outside the shop as it did in it!

They did warn me that I’ll have difficulty finding Anchor Pearl, because the Australian distributor (a new one took over the brand a few years ago) has done such a great job of running down the range that now its pretty much only available in one of the larger, lower quality chain sewing stores.

What has happened to Anchor? I’ve had emails from people in other places around the world in the last few days telling me that they find it difficult to get Anchor these days too. Why is this happening? My experiences with Anchor – admittedly none of them have been particularly recent – have always been satisfactory. Why are they not being supported by good distribution? Its very sad and disappointing. I suppose its all to do with global economic difficulties…

Anyway, I did get the DMC pearl cotton I wanted, so was pleased to be able to use them yesterday afternoon. Lovely feeling thread (I’m sorry Presencia, but I really do prefer DMC, no matter how much I really wanted to support you as a newer player in the market) which is so nice to work with.

Now, I have a question for you all. I’m making hanging ornaments for the Portuguese whitework book. There will be five or six little square pillows. In the past, I have made similar things into single hanging ornaments, which hang on the diagonal. To the right, you can see an example of one I’ve designed and made in the past. Instead of the embroidery shown though, there will be a square of Portuguese embroidery on these ones.

So that’s one option – all of the little pillows hanging as separate ornaments. But I did have another idea: a swag of the pillows all joined together that could be hung across a mantlepiece. You can find an example of the sort of thing I mean here, on Etsy. Mine would be little pillows, though, not flat.

This would just be a little bit different than what I normally make, so to me it has appeal. But does it appeal to you? Or would you prefer the single ornaments? They’d be more suitable as gifts that way… What do you think?

While it might be ideal to put both of these ideas in the book, unfortunately I don’t have the space to include instructions for both.