Happily Ever After by Joan Thomasson of Littleton, Colorado

"Happily Ever After" represents the ending of many Russian Fairy Tales, where the hero, after all sorts of trials and almost impossible tasks, meets his true love, falls in love at first sight, and the two live happily ever after. Tsar Dmitri, seen on the right, is a collector of rare and beautiful treasures. His greatest possession is a tree in the center of the palace garden which grows golden apples. A wiley Firebird has been entering the garden nightly stealing the golden apples. The Tsar decides he must have the Firebird, and sends his son, Tsarevich Ivan to capture it. After a series of adventures, the prince meets and is aided by a shape-changing Gray Wolf, the Horse with the Golden Mane, and his true love, the Princess Elena. In this scene, Tsarevich Ivan is presenting his bride to Tsar Dmitri while the Gray Wolf and Firebird, now caged, look on.

The needlepoint is worked on Congress Cloth in hand-dyed silk, overdyed-floss, DMC floss, Kreinik Metallics and Medicis wool. The arched walls are defined by Bargello outlines and decorated with golden discs representing the elaborate carved and gilded plasterwork of the imperial palaces. One arch opens onto the garden where the golden apple tree grows. The court stands on a Hungarian flame pattern carpet which covers part of the Broken Byzantine patterned parquet floor. The figures are dressed in clothing decorated with Couching and Blackwork.

I have chosen threads and stitches which best express to me the textures of wood, grillwork, foliage, fur, hair and clothing. Each of the borders is a different variation based on Scotch stitches worked in overdyed silk and Kreinik gold braids.

While this design is original, I am inspired by the paintings of K.Y. Craft whose work illustrates many traditional Russian fairy tale books. His use of color and the creation of rich textiles so typical of Russian state costumes lends itself readily to stitchery.