less than a year since my first stitch of blackwork, we have the most ambitious finished piece i have done yet -- in fact, it was known as the ambitious blackwork sampler until i decided at some point about a month ago that i wanted to give it to my friend kathy for her birthday. i was still working on the bottom row of border then; but for kathy, i also wanted a dragon at the top. it's still blackwork if you add a little color, as i've mentioned in the past. adding color isn't what makes projects appealing to me, usually, but this dragon did call out for red.
i love samplers for the mere fact that they are more or less done whenever you say they are done. this one almost looks like it's supposed to represent a single scene of some sort. i guess it does -- a scene of a couple of naked guys who have had a fight and are parting. a bug takes the side of the one guy and leaves with him. a dragon in heaven looks down at the foolish mortals. a small striped bird sits on the dragon's back. there are flowers on the earth below. yep, sounds like some sort of fable to me.
what else does kathy get? this little screenprinted bag from lotta jansdotter. it must have been a premium gift that came with my subscription to selvedge, because it was in my christmas bag with all the back issues. it is adorable, but i saw it more hanging on a doorknob at kathy's house than i saw it here. thus establishing an actual trend in birthday gifts for kathy; one thing i make her, and one thing that's already mine that i give her.
kathy's birthday is right after valentine's day and she knows she should stay off the blog for awhile so as not to ruin the surprise.