An Unfinished Object

Sorrowful news: last week DH's father passed away peacefully after a difficult illness. One of his few requests was to have an unfinished needlepoint chair cushion placed in his casket. DH's mother had been working on it when she died some years ago and of course I had saved the UFO.



So far as I can tell, MIL had no pattern, but was reproducing freehand a design she had seen somewhere. She stitched the flowers first, then the background, all in half cross stitch, using heavy tapestry wool on a double needlepoint canvas more usually used for petit point. The resulting fabric is sturdy, heavy, and only slightly biased. The stitched area tapers slightly from the top (the back of the chair seat) to the bottom (the front of the seat).

FIL's request surprised and moved me. He was never a sentimental person. He discarded the chair; had the cushion been completed, I imagine it would have been discarded too. I got to keep it only because it was unfinished. Interesting he thought of it at the end of his life.

Sometimes it seems there are more UFOs buzzing roundabout Exit 151 than around Area 51. It can be a nuisance. But quite unexpectedly one of them has provided an opportunity for generosity and reconciliation beyond words, at the time when love and necessity meet in silence.