Dec 16, 2008

MATCHY MATCHY

It all started when I was a little girl. I have a very distinct memory of sitting in my little sandbox playing with empty containers from my dad's tool b0x. I think they must have been packaging for screws and nuts and bolts, because they were clear plastic with colored tops on them.

So there I was...minding my own business, when it hit me square between the eyeballs that the colors on the container tops weren't all the same. There were red ones and green ones and blue ones and yellow ones.

This, in my punky little head, was completely unacceptable (they should have all been the same color, size, texture, and shape, don't you know), so I did what any normal two year old would do. I screamed bloody murder until Mom came running out of the house, convinced that her child had been mauled by a pack of wild dogs.

But I regress.

I have always been a "matchy matchy" kind of girl. I like things to be in order. I like them to match. I like things to line up perfectly and be labeled to within an inch of their lives and, most importantly, I like them to stay that way. In short, I prefer that everything in my world adheres to a strict matchy matchy kind of code.

In my younger days (before the advent of white cotton Fruit of the Loom big girl underpants), I insisted that my bra and underpants match. Always. Couldn't leave the house unless the flowers on the top matched the flowers on the bottom. Likewise with shoes, belts, and purses. And hats, scarves, and gloves. If it was within my realm of experience, it had to match.

At work, the pens in the pen cup had to all be the same. The pads that I took notes on needed to match the ones that were in my portfolio. My file folders needed to look like they were a family. Get the picture?

So now, as an...ahem....adult stitcher, I find myself....how shall I say this?...Completely screwed. I have this weird compulsion to matchy matchy all of my stitchy stuff. I want all of the crap to be lined up in military precision and I want to know that if a chart calls for Crescent Colors, I will use only Crescent Colors for that chart and all of its companions. If I'm colorizing a needlepoint canvas, I usually start off with the type of thread I want (i.e., Silk and Ivory, perle cotton, etc.) and then I use that and only that to colorize the entire project.

And then my stitchy muse comes along (with medication in hand) and kicks me in the head and reminds me that there is such a thing as texture, depth, creativity, and improvisation in stitching. It makes me throw everything up into the air and...gasp.....just. let. it. be.

So after years and years of resisting the matchy matchy urge, I am once again grappling with the need to anal-retentive this sucker right into oblivion. Do you see what the nice people at The Prairie Schooler have done to me? Do ya'? Huh Huh? Do ya'?:They decided to use the same palette for all of these kits! And, if you notice, the palette is rather simply: red, green, white, and black. No brown. No yellow. No pink, purple, or lavender. Red. Green. White. Black.

So if I decide to change colors on 2008's "By the Chimney", does that mean that I now have license to change the colors on 2005, 2006, and 2007 too? And if I change the colors on one, do I need to use those same colors in the other three? What if I have to use different dye lots? Or, heaven forbid, what if I simply RUN OUT OF a color and have to switch it up for one of the other pieces in the series?!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!

Do you see why I should not be allowed into the stitchy world. At all? Stitching is supposed to be FUN! And CREATIVE! And something one does to stretch one's ARTISTIC and FREE SPIRITED thinking!

Why can't I just get with the freakin' program and have some fun? WHY? WHY?

Note from Stewey: Um. My mom can't come to the blog right now. She's outside trying to re-arrange the snow flakes on the patio for a "more pleasing" configuration. She ran outta' here like her hair was on fire (and we all know that she's capable of doing that, don't we?) and said something about everything being SUCH A MESS that she just couldn't take it anymore. I swear I heard "Out, Out, Damn spot!", but I have no freakin' idea what that means. Well, I just thought I'd let you know why she left so abruptly. I'm gonna' go pee on something to see if I can distract her for a little while. Ciao for now!

Note from Dr. Melfi: Please don't be alarmed. She does this. Coni will go through a period of about fifteen minutes where she decides to clean/organize something and then she realizes that everything around her is a complete mess. This, in my clinical opinion, is due to the fact that she lives like a frat boy 28 days of the month and then tries to be Martha Stewart Her Very Self for the other two. So rather than say, just doing the damn laundry or emptying the dishwasher, she will pull out something stitchy related and fret over it until her insides bleed and she feels compelled to share it with all of her stitchy buddies online. We're working on limits, boundaries, and accountability, but methinks this will be a very long endeavor. In the meantime, please continue with what you're doing, and Stewey and I will get the dart gun loaded with sedatives.

12 comments:

  1. Hee! Now this poor designer at Prairie Schooler was probably sitting there patting his or herself (oh my.. which is it?) on the back because they had managed to do what so few do... stick with the same color palette for a series of designs. This poor designer was all warm and fuzzy with pride that they had done RIGHT by the stitching community by giving us designs that *gasp* MATCH.

    And then comes Coni.

    Hee!

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  2. Message from Dr Melfi - For goodness sake girl change the colours on the one you're stitching if you want to. Stewey's mental health depends on it.

    Love your blog. keep it up.

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  3. Double dare you to stitch them all in different colorways....
    Anon, hiding under the bed in CH where Stewey can't find me

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  4. Go ahead girl...change them! I just dressed 3 supposedly matching elves on the SAME stocking in 3 DIFFERENT OUTFITS! They are, afterall individuals just like we are, and they don't have to dress like triplets ALL THE $@&$ TIME!!!

    Edy, in yucky NYC

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  5. ROTFLOL! Very cute, and I can so relate :-). I say you can change the colors to whatever you want.

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  6. a cup of tea
    a cookie for you and stewey
    a nap
    and onward

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  7. I'm not the only one! Wait til I tell my doctor!
    Thanks so much Coni, I really enjoy your blog. Stewey - you make sure Mommy stays on track!
    Now, to get back to organizing my ORTS into colour groups.....

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  8. Your piece, your perogative....just my perspective! Think outside the box, do your thing, and enjoy!

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  9. Warning, warning, I have already run down this path with these four patterns and you will be unhappy to know that color Cupid for the red no longer matches between the kits. Why, because Crescent Color must have changed the dye lot. I am now in my sandbox trying to figure out WHY......

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  10. The WHY, Babs, is because NO Crescent Color EVER matches from one dye lot to another. I learned this on Raise the Roofs Warm Water Wash. Where I also learned that newer Crescent Colors don't have much variation at all. Making the entire pattern a LOT more bland than the model. Which also led to my decision to never, ever use Crescent Colors every again, no matter what the chart says. We have lovely WDW and GAST and silk and lots of matching DMC threads. Why tear your hair out?

    Oh, and Coni? Brown, if you want it, yellow/gold where necessary. Rinse and repeat.

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  11. I am not entirely a matchy matchy girl (I'm more of a "go with" girl. But my eldest daughter was so matchy matchy as a child that she changed her entire outfit because she couldn't find socks to match her top and she was wearing pants.

    My other daughter ( who's the artist) is so unmatchy that she once put together a printed top with a tiny bit of purple together with a printed jumper together because they "both have purple in them" Nothing else the same, but the purple.

    Keep Stitching,
    Janet
    --who's about to go stitch something mathcy matchy today.

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  12. ROTFL with your "Martha Stewart the other 2 days - I do the same thing! LMK if Dr. Melfi finds a cure (c:

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