I came across a sweet picture the other day of a day in the vineyard. The photo shows me a few years back with my mom and my oldest daughter. The three of us lounge on comfy leather sofas in the tasting room of a local winery. We are backlit by the soft glow of a sunny afternoon. Mom and I are facing each other, wine glasses in hand. We are talking and smiling as my daughter sips from her wine glass and drinks in the conversation. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but it was a lovely moment. Happy. Warm. Inviting.

As a native California girl, I’m no stranger to wineries. This particular afternoon, I believe we were visiting Fess Parker Winery and Vineyard, nestled in the rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley, not far from where our girls were raised. Back then, we were blessed to live in the same town as my mother, three generations intertwined like the strands of a beautiful silk cord. We spent a lot of time together—family dinners, school concerts, church picnics, and wine tasting! We had many years to collect memories, store up wisdom, and share in the “beautiful ordinary” of daily living.

Now we are apart much of the year. Mom remains in California while the girls and I make our homes 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast. I make my trek back to what was home two or three times a year so mom and I can laugh and discover new adventures. In between, I pick up my needle and thread and let those halcyon days inspire my embroidery.

A Study in Shading

I call the fourth project in my Crewel Master Craftsman journey A Day in the Vineyard. It reminds me of that day at the winery with mom and my daughter. I am still fine tuning the final piece for judging, but in this version, I attempt to capture Chardonnay grapes as they transition from late summer to early fall. The fruit is turning but has not yet fully ripened. The full green of summer is still prominent, but it is giving way to autumn’s golds, reds and yellows.

This project is a study in shading. To make the large leaves, I used the long and short stitch, commonly associated with crewel shading techniques. There are other ways to create the illusion of shading, however. For example, I used French knots in a gradation of shades to fill the leaf in the upper left corner. A series of stem stitches in a collection of greens, browns and a hint of red mimic the shading of a large vine. Finally, I worked the grape tendrils and the outline of the folded leaf in the upper corner in a whipped backstitch using two shades of brown or two shades of yellow.

My interpretation of this vineyard design is worked on a linen twill fabric with Appleton wools. I used shades from these color families: grass green, olive green, autumn yellow, honeysuckle yellow, fawn, and flame red. I recommend using at least two or three shades within one color family to create a rich shading blend. And when building up a design (as with the grapes), start with the background elements first and work your way to the foreground.

When this project is fully finished, I will frame it and carry it back to California. There, I will prop it up on my mother’s mantel, pour us each a glass of buttery Chardonnay, and we will toast to the enduring love of family and the sweet memory of a day in the vineyard.