Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (Vincent Van Gogh) – latch hook project
This is my second Van Gogh latch hook project (see my first one) . . . here’s what I did, with progress shown in 9 stages and musings along the way 🙂
September 9th, 2021: I began planning this project. Using pic2pat.com, I uploaded a good quality photo of Van Gogh’s “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” to the site, which converts it to a cross stitch pattern. It allows you to choose from a large selection of color palettes, from 150 down to 2 (a silhouette). The more colors, the better the “resolution”, and the more it looks like the original picture. There are about 500 shades of DMC floss, but only 84 shades of precut latch hook yarn from the only supplier I could find. So I selected the closest approximations for 40 colors (10 more than last time!) in Herrschners’ precut yarn ($1.19 for a package with 320 strands of a single color – sometimes they are on sale for $0.89 per package). The pic2pat site tells you exactly how many stitches for each color, which is a huge help in calculating how much latch hook yarn to purchase. You could buy yarn less expensively if you decided to cut it all yourself, but with a large project like this (32,185 stitches), you would need to consider how much time you wanted to spend doing that. I invested several hours in the planning side of the process, before placing my order and waiting for it to arrive. I also ordered my canvas – 100% cotton rug hooking mesh canvas, 3.75 mesh, 60 x 44 inches (150 x 110 cm). I already had a latch hook tool from an earlier project. (The formula for calculating what size to choose on your pattern is – choose the canvas size you would like for your finished piece. The smallest number of stitches per inch on pic2pat is 8, so choose that option. Now divide each dimension of your desired canvas size by 8 and then multiply by the mesh size of the canvas you would like to use, which for me was 3.75. For my 60 x 44 canvas, this calculation comes to 28.1 x 20.6, so I chose for my pattern the nearest size on pic2pat that was not more than that, which was 28 x 19.3)
November 8th, 2021: I received all of my supplies a couple of weeks ago, but we had visits from three of our kids / bonus kids plus a family birthday to celebrate and I wanted to be fully present for each of them 🙂 It’s important to start a large and complicated project like this with full concentration, especially to ensure proper placement on the canvas.
December 8th, 2021: Stage 1 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . I’ve started on my next huge Van Gogh latch hook project. It’s the same size as my previous project, but this interpretation of a masterpiece is in portrait instead of landscape orientation. I increased my level of difficulty from 30 to 40 colors and am enjoying this extended color palette with only a small amount of overlap with my last project’s colors. I’ve begun with a section on the lower left, so it will be awhile before we see any of the gorgeous sunflowers, as I lay the foundation of the table and vase.
March 24th, 2022: Stage 2 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . most of the vase is visible now! I’m really enjoying the color palette, having already used 37 of the 40 shades (admittedly some are quite sparse!) . . . slow but steady progress here as the beautiful springtime beckons me out-of-doors more often 🙂
April 30th, 2022: Stage 3 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . In August, 1888 Vincent van Gogh began painting his sunflower works as a series, writing in a letter to a friend that month, “I’m thinking of decorating my studio with half a dozen paintings of sunflowers. A decoration in which harsh or broken yellows will burst against various blue backgrounds, from the palest Veronese to royal blue, framed with thin laths painted in orange lead. Sorts of effects of stained-glass windows of a Gothic church.” I am grateful for the stunning beauty and health benefits of sunflowers, bringing us joy and helping us to daily remember those who are suffering in the Russian invasion of Ukraine (sunflowers are Ukraine’s national flower).
June 12th, 2022: Stage 4 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . finally, I’ve reached the part of the design where sunflowers are beginning to emerge! With my latch hook projects, the colors are approximations of the originals, and I’m really enjoying seeing how this palette plays out. This section will remain memorable for me because of our Peter & Aleksandra’s wedding which occurred during this stage, as I was about to work the red disk florets of the flower now visible on the upper right. This family celebration, as with Van Gogh’s work, brought and continues to bring me such joy!
June 28th, 2022: Stage 5 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . Van Gogh painted this treasure in 1888, shortly after ordering three different hues of chrome yellow oil paint, which, due to recent developments in paint chemistry, had created brighter, more stable colors previously unavailable for oil painting. The chrome yellow color is one of the most striking aspects of this and the other paintings in his sunflower series. What was not known at the time was that this bright yellow changes under exposure to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight, gradually turning to brown. I’m glad Van Gogh painted his heart out with the palette he had and produced incredible masterpieces. We all have different paint palettes available to us in our lives. Let’s do the best we can with the palettes we’ve been given, to wholeheartedly pursue what is beautiful, good, and true.
July 24th, 2022: Stage 6 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . as I look over my progress on this project, it’s easy to see that it’s an approximation of Van Gogh’s beautiful painting. The canvas is getting quite heavy now, bulky, too, as I fold it twice to position it on my lap to work a few rows in the evenings. I noticed the color palette changing as I approached the top of this section, reminding me that although we’re still in the heat of the summer where I live, there are hints of a new season approaching. I’m thankful that no matter what circumstances swirl around us, beauty surrounds us on every side, reminding us of God’s presence and loving care for all of creation!
August 31st, 2022: Stage 7 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . Oh, how I’m enjoying watching the latch hook interpretation of this beautiful painting emerge, one stitch at a time. This particular oil on canvas (91 x 72 cm) is one of seven paintings in Van Gogh’s “Arles Sunflowers” series (there is also a “Paris Sunflowers” series of four paintings). Van Gogh painted this particular work in August 1888. It bears the title “Sunflowers (F456), third version: blue green background” and is in the collection of the Neue Pinakothek art museum in Munich, Germany. I hope I get to see it one day! It will always remind me of this season of my life (2021-22) with all of the blessings, challenges, relationships, opportunities, comings, and goings! I am so very thankful that God’s fingerprints of love, peace, joy, and hope touch every single part of life! I’m also very relieved that the two white rows at the top lined up – I was honestly a bit nervous about that 🙂
October 28th, 2022: Stage 8 of 9 of “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . I am both excited and sad as I approach the final stage of this project. Paul & I like to watch a show at the end of each day, usually an episode of a BBC drama or reruns of The Office. This canvas has been my late-night companion all through the vicissitudes of 2022, including several really high highs along with a few really low lows. In the midst of whatever circumstances life brings, I am encouraged that beauty abounds, truth abounds, goodness abounds, grace abounds, love abounds. I give thanks for God’s generous and gracious gifts – love, life, light, and so much more – lavished upon all people in all places at all times. The people I know, the people I don’t know. The people I enjoy, the people I find challenging to love. Sunflowers, because they’re so beautiful and bright, help me in my desire to practice remembering and noticing and focusing on that which is good, holy, and beautiful, because when I do, I am remembering and noticing and focusing on God. Although sunflowers are designed to always towards the sun, we are each free to choose, and we are invited to wholeheartedly turn towards and live in God’s glorious presence, love, life, and light.
January 13th, 2023: After a long break during the Christmas season, I’m finally finished! Stage 9 of 9 in my latch hook project for Van Gogh’s “Vase with Twelve Sunflowers” . . . next I need to edge with black yarn before hanging.
Finally, here is a short video showing the progression of the project. Music: “Arabesque No. 2. Allegretto scherzando” (Claude Debussey) – I chose this because it was composed around the same time that Van Gogh painted this masterpiece (1889).
