July 25, 2009 -- Final Appearance of Risers

Remember golf's bargello needlepoint risers she made that she showed a while back? They are now in final form and in place. Her father (bless his 90-year-old and pace-maker'ed heart!) was kind enough to "lace" (with carpet thread) the canvas pieces on strips of masonite, cut by golf and Larry (with great care on the table saw -- do you know how hard it is to cut a straight line along masonite for 52"??) to fit the height of each individual step (necessary because each step was a different height by +/-1/4" , which they really never had felt when just walking up and down the carpeted stairs). golf was able to tack the covered strips in place on the stairs with brass nails and had to paint the heads of only two nails to match the color of yarn where the nail went in. Where she could, she put the nail in through gold yarn so it wouldn't show when in place (I asked her just WHO did she think was going to get down on his/her hands and knees and LOOK for the nail heads, at which time she told me the unpainted ones against burgundy and navy blue yarn would catch the light and visually "announce" where they were if they weren't covered, so I backed off questioning her installation attempts). Here I am, standing about midway, showing the top four risers. Click on the picture for a bigger view and you can see more detail of the bargello needlepoint patterns -- and keep in mind that every single stitch was done by golf by hand!


Here I am on the foyer tile floor at the bottom step, showing the first five steps' risers going up the stairway.

And here I am in the middle, so you can see almost all of them in place (not showing is the bottom one, which you can see better in the picture just above, anyway).

It took golf about eight months to make these (not counting the time when we were in Oahu in September and the Dominican Republic in January). golf came up with this idea last summer when she ran out of projects to do and recalled a time during college (40 years ago!) when she had visited a friend's house and the stairs down to the basement game room had needlepoint pieces on the risers. For all this time, she has remembered those stairs and finally was in a house where she could make the pieces and install them in her own house. She is pleased with them -- and hey, it'll make her keep the stairs vacuumed more often! And that can only be a good thing, with three long-haired cats (two bluepoint Himalayans and one sealpoint Himmie) running up and down the stairs all the time, leaving cat hair all over them. It's also a good thing Larry and golf had dark green carpet installed when they built the house. Imagine how less dramatic these would look with tan or beige carpet. BORING! Now, these will stand out and showcase themselves.