Stash Sunday Gingko Leaves

Thanks to a Guy Fieri evening on TV last week and no distractions (a rare occurrence), I was able to make great progress on this project. In fact I only have about an hour of stitching left on it.

The design is going to be a present and will be put into a Sudberry walnut box and is a gift. It was aproject for my ANG Chapter back in October. The project came from one of the great unheralded sources for outstanding needlepoint designs — the ANG Chapter Project Books.

The CPBs have been published by ANG every other year for quite awhile. The designs cover all levels and all sizes of projects. Often they cover interesting techniques as well. Only chapters have access to the books and then only for activities by the chapter. Chapters start getting them as soon as they are chartered by ANG and the books are a wonderful source of ideas for programs. This design was from the 2007 CPB. The original design had a plaid background but our leader didn’t like it, so it was changed to pattern darning. In addition to the pages from the CPB we also got several pages of darning patterns.

Source of the Design

This design is an adaptation of a Japanese Family Crest. It has three gingko leaves arranged in a circle with their stems intertwined.

For centuries Japanese families were often identified by their crests, which are symbols, most from natural sources, put into a circle. They are usually seen as white, black, or gold. But there is no reason why more colors cannot be used. Because most of the designs have little detail, they make great needlepoint. You can even find painted canvases of some of the designs.

If you want to explore these, Dover publishes books of these, some with CDs.

Gingko trees, one of the earliest trees, are important in many kinds of oriental art. Their leaves are a very distinct shape which is popular, not only in Oriental art, but also in Arts & Crafts design. I made a small three leaf piece several years ago that was based on an Arts & Crafts motif.

I decided to make this as a Christmas present for a friend who is Korean.

Materials and Patterns

Gingkos turn a lovely brilliant yellow in the fall. I decided I would use those instead of the olive greens in our teacher’s model. The project called for three shades of floss. I decided instead to use three different threads,similar to what I used in the earlier project.I found overdyed yellows looked too fussy, so I used three solid threads: Floche, crewel wool, and DMC Matte Cotton.

Each leaf is stitched in a different stitch with small Cross Stitches on the side and Tent on the base.

The box has a 5″ square opening, so this area was marked on canvas before I traced the leaf motif. I decided to go with a very simple over three-under three darning pattern. I wanted something simple because of the small areas between the leaves and in the center.

I love how it’s turning out and can’t wait to finish.

Once this is done it’s back to the quilt. Then I’ll move on to the saying canvas to finish that. But with Christmas only a few days away, I will be getting out a Christmas canvas to do next Sunday and Monday.