Siding the house

With all the white woodwork stitched, I'm now free to start filling in! I decided to next attack the clapboards that form the siding for the house.

You'll often find Cape Cod-style houses sheathed with clapboards on the front facade, while the other three sides are covered with cedar shingles. In typical frugal Yankee fashion, the early builders put their more expensive materials facing the street--but today I believe the tide has turned and the cedar shingles are more expensive.

If you refer back to the photo in my last post, you'll notice that I haven't painted in any breaks between the clapboards. In order to keep this area in scale, I've stitched the clapboards in rows of slanted gobelin stitches over two threads, using DMC floss #762--a pale gray which, strangely enough. looks an awful lot like the color of my house!

When I finished siding the house, I treated myself by stitching the light fixtures on either side of the front door. The style of these fixtures is known as an "onion" light, pretty typical for the Cape and Islands, so named because of its shape. I used Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002V--in oblong cross stitches for the hanging bracket and a combination of satin and tent stitches for the light itself.

For those of you still wanting to see a little color on this canvas, stay tuned: I'll be installing the door next!