Saturday, June 19, 2010

One down, two to go


The Connecticut postcard is finished! It's a good thing I'm stitching these designs by Denise DeRusha for myself, and not as a stitch guide--there were so many small details in the central scene that I lost track of how many different colors of floss I used!

I used a lot of basketweave, primarily because the areas were small. I would have loved to use French knots for the autumn foliage, for instance, but that would have overpowered the factory buildings in front of the foliage. I did use some textured stitches where I could--in the brown factory building, for instance, as well as the factory roofs, foundations and windows.

I easily recognized the different elements representative of the state: the foliage, the factories, the ship and even the stylized mountain laurel flowers in the bottom corners. But the hamburger frankly had me stymied! It took a lot of digging on the internet before I came up with an answer: the hamburger was introduced in 1900 in New Haven! A customer to Louis' Lunch wagon asked for a quick yet hot lunch, and Louis happened to have some ground beef on hand. He formed a patty, grilled it, and placed it between two slices of white bread, cutting the sandwich on the diagonal. Now 110 years later, and in a brick-and-mortar shop, Louis' Lunch still serves hamburgers this way!

On to the Texas postcard!

4 comments:

Possibilities, Etc. said...

I love this! I had to giggle at the French knots on the lettuce - curly leaf lettuce? Looks good. I agree with not using French knots on the fall foliage - it would have overpowered the little design. As always, I enjoy your explanations of why you do and don't use which stitches - well done! The history is also interesting.

Anonymous said...

This is definitely going to be a super gift! I hope you pass along the history when you give it to your son. Looking forward to the other two postcards now.

Edy said...

LOVE the burger!

Cyn said...

Hi Anne,

These look like so much fun!

Though I am having a bit of a problem with the crab shape on the Maryland one but crabs are difficult to draw and stitch. :-)

For out family I'd need at least the following states;

Pennsylvania
Maryland
Illinois
Viginia
Kansas
and now New Mexico for DD.

Hmmmm....

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Cynthia
Windy Meadow