Interview with Margaret Condy

I have a special treat this morning--an interview with Margaret Condy. Margaret is a long-time needlepointer with a special perspective on our needle arts due to her long enjoyment of them. She graciously agreed to be interviewed and even arranged for photographs of some of her stitching for you to enjoy. And now, here is the interview with Margaret!

Margaret says:
I have been reading your blog every morning for a long time. And while we are at it, I stitched the Trail of Life Sundance piece with you even though I had to get a nice young lady at the city library to print off the original drawing for me. An interview ??? What a hoot.


Very plain bones here I am afraid. In a very few days I will be 82. I am kind of proud of that. I wonder how many others remember when you bought your dish towels and iron-on transfers from Woolworths where there were 5 colors of floss available? As I remember there was black, green, blue, red and white. But it was during the depression and beginning of WWII and no one could have afforded to buy more than that anyhow. We certainly have come a long way.


I asked another old timer today if I remembered rightly about there being only 5 colors of floss. She said yes. We both remembered when pink became available. After all, flowers have to be pink. I have no idea what the big shops in NYC and Chicago carried because I was in Denver and my friend, who is 6 years younger, grew up in North Dakota.

I think you are very clever faking overdyes. [Note: this was what the Trail of Life piece I stitched was about, transferring a line drawing and then substituting for the expensive Watercolours with DMC cotton floss.] Not everyone can find all the specialties, especially with shops closing one after another. However I am mad for overdyes. I have a big bag full, including the left overs from Trail of Life.


I was particularly taken with that design because I had previous stitched a similar design, Thunder Spirit, in different shades of one color of Medici using bargello stitches. All that glitter and overdye of Life was such a different approach. I have another design of the same swooping theme (Pinery) which I will stitch some day if I can come up with a completely different slantwise stitch just for comparison.


I thought a bit about an interview because while I always have lots to say it isn't always of interest to others. But my vanity won out. I would love to see some pictures of my work on the net. So I cast around for someone with a digital camera and found one who carefully snapped away in the sunlight. They turned out fairly well. 

I was an only child in a house where my mother sewed everything for all of us. Sewing, tatting, crocheting, knitting, and lots and lots of hairpin lace. I was embroidering something very early. Always with floss, and never ever giving a thought to stripping the plies. The usual dish cloth and dresser scarves. My Mom added the crochet trim as I got better at it. Oh, don't forget the pillowcases. I fell in love with cross stitch for some time but needlepoint had to wait until I retired.


I took a course at the local Senior Center (I love those places with all their classes and am still engaged with one thing or another) where we all completed a sample square with all the basic stitches. The most used stitch of all was the ripit one. I am a past master at that. Anyhow, I quickly fell in love with the colors and designs, and rapidly moved on to large intricate designs of people. Women, knights, Minoan frescos, always, it seems, something alive. While I much admire flowers and paisley prints I am driven to stitch something I can give a name to.

I am slower now but have several things going at once. The largest is a 15X35 Princess Collection piece on a floor rack that is always in the way. It is the second of a pair of Pre-Raphaelite ladies, one blond surrounded with grapes on vines and the second with darker hair and pomegranates and masses of leaves. I went through a bad spell a couple of years ago and things got a little iffy. Fireside Stitchery offered them and I made a bargain with myself that I would see if I could finish one. Well, I did and am grateful to have a second chance to finish the pair. The second large lady is on the rack and is heavy stitching. The first one took a year and a half and I expect this one will too.

I have five little canvases in various stages and have just bought "And When She Was Bad" from Maggie. I am thinking about how I can really make her special. How nice it is to find out that other stitchers have such a nice stash. Doesn't it make you feel secure knowing you will never run out even if you never buy another piece?


When I retired 20 years ago I thought needlepoint was yarn landscapes all done in the same flat stitch. Talk about change. Do I see area differences among stitchers? I live in Santa Clara, which is a small town set in a very large crowded metropolis about 60 miles down the bay from San Francisco, right on the edge of Silicon Valley. Several stores have closed recently so the very rich meet with the penny pinchers in one nice surviving store, and we all pray together that it stays afloat. Differences here.... Almost never do I see Southwestern, religious (of any denomination), or woodsy (bears or woodcocks etc.) on display. What I do see is Asian, flowers, Californian kookiness. Every time I visit the store I see very large, complicated, multi-threaded Christmas stockings, finished and hanging for pick up. Beautiful.

My friends think it is nice I have a hobby but that is where it ends. Believe it or not, a plumber had to come in once and walked across the room several times before he was done. He was the one who stopped at my big framed piece at the time and looked at it. He knew exactly what I was doing. I was sorry he was a working man and didn't have time to talk, but I have always remembered him.


I am sure you never expected all this. Do with it whatever you want. You may receive some unexpected pictures next Monday. I hope so. But I never bank on anything.


Margaret

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Margaret told me a bit more about the pieces pictured in the slide show in the list below. They are mentioned in the order they are in the slide show for your information.


1. Trail of Life (Sundance Designs)


2. Thunder Spirit  I had stitched this one a couple of years before Trail. That is why I was so interested in the different style. Yes, I think it is an older but not aged man. Something about the way he holds his head.


3. Lady/Cat by Lee  The stitching was very heavy with lots of Kreinek gold throughout. I was thinking padded winter wear. Some how I had a story in my head about her sitting in a rare bit of sunshine with her cats. That mark on the top left is a bit of thread. I never noticed it until I saw the pictures last night. I know it was thread because I picked I off this morning. The head ornament is purple beads set inside a burgundy Kreinik outline. The earrings are one of those bright threads outlined with silver Kreinik. Lots of gold in that robe that is more prominent in real life. No doubt that she is well-to-do.

4. Minoan Fresco  Every rope of silver was done differently using large and small Kreinek with some pearls. The original is located in The Archaeological Museum at Heraklion on the Island of Crete. The short-hand title is the Blue Ladies from Knossos. I see the original has belly buttons. All that turquoise (teal, whatever) is silk. The hair and faces are Splendor. The orange is floss. I would have sworn I stitched every silver chain differently , but I see now I didn't. I see three strings with pearls, two are inside chain stitches. 

5. Forth of July was one of my early ones.

6. This is a beaded Lavender and Lace design and far more gorgeous in real life. It is in cross stitch. The Angel of Love (unofficial name "The Circuit Board Angel") is lush and finely patterned, and so heavy that I always lay it on a flat surface. The linen would soon drag and tear if I tried to hang it.

At one time I had all the artists' names written down but gave up thinking it would never matter. I certainly appreciate their artistry and would acknowledge them if I could.

In order of work.... Roughly. The kid, The Knight (he has a lady too), Minoan, Thunder Spirit and Lady/Cat, Trail of Life, large lady (Her name is Helena. I name all my people. The knight is Guy pronounced as the French do and his lady is Eleanor).

Margaret, thanks for the interview. I enjoyed hearing about your stitching life very much.   I'm sure all Blog readers are wishing you a very happy birthday!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
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