I really have to tell you this one—since I didn’t want to let my framing customer know about it and it just struck me funny.
The piece I was framing was a large, 24”x 36” creamy, fairly solid tatting (crochet) that I was sewing by hand-tacking in place onto a background of black velvet. First, of course, I had to lay it out flat and ease it to lie evenly on the background, and also make sure that it would not sag unevenly when it was placed upright. I had measured the piece when it first came it, but evidently I hadn’t noticed the design of it. Now, as I stood back to squint and judge if it was perfectly aligned, I could make out the pattern and was surprised to find that it was a needlework version of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. And here’s the problem: This piece was reversible, the stitches beautifully executed by someone at least fifty years ago who didn’t even leave an uncut thread hanging to mark the back from the front. No initials woven into the pattern by the humble crafter. Desperately (on a time deadline now, since I’d procrastinated with the piece for a few weeks and promised it’d be ready today) I tried to remember which way Jesus was facing, where Judas stood in the portrait, could I go by where the fork sat in the table settings, or if something about the right hand of God applied to this piece.
Excite Search Engine to the rescue: Within seconds the image came up on my computer screen and I was able to avoid embarrassing myself with my lack of knowledge (memory, really) of the fine arts as well as religion. Ain’t computers wonderful?
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology