Indonesian Food Tray

One of the reason why I was interested in cross stitching when I came for the first time at the embroidery club because Elizabeth, our Polish host, has got so many different types of finishing products. Wall clocks and trays were things that took most of my attentions. So when I went to Indonesia, I immediately grabbed the first clock and tray kits that I saw :) My first clock (and the only one at the moment :-p) has been featured in this post.

When we went to Turkey for Christmas holiday 2011, I was so eager to make this tray. But it was so hard, the fabric was 18ct rustico colour. I couldn't find the holes! I missed the holes a lot, skipped some stitches (I made only one \ instead of X sign, I thought I had made it already). I even had to sit near the window and leaned to catch the sun light... I laughed at myself and decided to stop. I put it down until I was back in Syria again. When I was about to restart, I realised I started it wrongly, instead following the center of my fabric I started it on the folded mark that left of the fabric (because how they folded it to fit it in the package of the kit). Then I decided to stop completely. No way I would pull the threat and start again in such fabric!

However, I ran out of project to make. I didn't know where the local needle shop was, even worse I couldn't speak Arabic so I needed somebody to take me there. Some friends from the club promised to take me there but we couldn't find suitable time sooner. Meanwhile, my hands were itchy to stitch! I have no choice except stitching this, the only project that I had left. And then bombs exploded in Aleppo (early February 2012), there was no way I would go out to downtown to buy cross stitch supplies (some of my friends still did but I wasn't that crazy :-p). We were so stressed out and concerned about our security, the contingency plan from my husband workplace wasn't certain so me and the kids were trapped in the house (my daughter school was closed immediately after the bomb). That situation speed up my stitching progress (finally I get used to the hole sizes and the colour) and it helped me to clear my mind from all the crazy thoughts about what was going on in Syria. I think I was thinking more rationally when I stitch.

So finally I made it, after one month on-off:

Indonesian Food Tray

Aida Rustico 18ct, 37 x 21 cm

DMC threads

(kit bought in Indonesia, Nov 2011
started in Turkey, Dec 2011
restarted in Syria, Jan 2012 and finished Feb 2012)

The only thing is I haven't got it framed to a tray yet :( When I bought the kit I was offered a ready to use tray, but I refused to buy it because I thought it would be a little bulky and added a little weight to my already overweight baggage, not to mention the possibility the glass could be broken on the way. My friends said a frame shop in Aleppo could make a tray (all the ladies from the club made theirs there) so I thought I could do the same. When I went there for my Pooh clock  and Balinese Dancers I saw some example of the trays and I was dying to finish mine too. But after the explosions everything was changed (I even almost couldn't get my framed works). I didn't think it was worth the risk to go to that shop to get this one framed. Even if I did everything was so uncertain I wasn't sure it would be ready before we were being evacuated out of Syria. 

So it has been rolled and stored neatly inside my wardrobe, hoping one day I would find a ready to use tray frame or a frame shop who could turn this in to a tray. Either in Amman, Konya, or Jakarta. I will post again when it happened :)

*****

 many thanks, terima kasih, sağol, شُكْرًا