Each year I prepare the photography for our Christmas card wishes. Usually I try to capture a moment when the garden is under a thick blanket of snow, the first serious snowfall of the year. This year, I wanted to do something different and began embroidering some Christmas themed banners with ancient lettering.

I plan to deck a natural, snow clad pine tree in the garden with this message and hopefully create an embroidered seasonal wish to send to our friends.

The pattern for these letters come from the Sajou albums of the 19th century. I have cross stitched them on natural linen, over 2 threads, with 2 threads of DMC floss #309.

Happy Christmas to all my readers.

Wild pansies

I had finished this small tablecloth in late August. And then, just last night, finished the fourth of a series of small doilies in the same colour of pinks on caramel and écru linen. The ensemble makes for such a fresh splash of light on the dark wood of the dining room table. Summer colours for an autumnal day. Another way to bring the light into the house when autumnal light sends off a more wintry message.

Mary Victor Sampler of 1764

I haven't written all summer for family reasons, but I haven't been idle. Here is the piece that I had started in 2000 and had left in a drawer at our weekend house so that even if I had not put a project in my weekend luggage, I was assured that I had something to work on if the time presented itself through the weekend.

We now live in this weekend house fulltime and I am trying to tidy up and finish projects which have been sitting in baskets or drawers waiting for the right moment to work on and complete.

It is a Williamsburg sampler stitched by Mary Victor at the age of 10. It is dated 1764. I found the mechanical process of following the pattern very restful. Unable to dig down and do something innately creative, cross stitch can be a wonderful friend since the creative aspect is taken care of and one can revel in the colour and the form which ends up on the canvas.

I finished the piece last week and made it into a table carpet which now sits on our dining room table under a bevelled piece of glass. I can admire it, set things on it, enjoy its colours without any fear that it will become damaged. It is also very accessible as a table carpet rather than in a frame since I can take the glass off and hold the finished piece in my hands.

I love its naiveté and simplicity. I appreciate its historical significance, a reflection of the lifestyle of a past era, how we have progressed, as women, from that point, but how there is still a place in our society for these quiet activities which allow the embroiderer to return to her centre, find herself and, if only momentarily, a perspective on the day and life.

I said I would put a picture of the colour palette up so here it is.
And I began working the piece over the last week. I am not very far along, but it seems to be taking some shape. I am using Piper's Silks which are very fine, so even working for an hour, I seem to only cover a very small part of the design.

But I love the vibrancy of the colours and on the white linen ground, the contrast is exactly what I am looking for. I'll post my progress soon.

My daughter has asked me to create a gift for someone who has shown her great support in her writing. I don't know the future recipient, but since she is a high profile media personality, I have been able to do some research. Of course, I understand that my perspective is from the outside looking in and this perspective is not always true, but I am confident in my assessment that she is of strong character, provocative in nature, big hearted probably, incisive, colourful....

In that light, the design is all about strong movement and vibrant colour. I am looking for excitement. Here is the design. I plan to use a palette of strong jewel colours. Tomorrow I will photograph the threads, fine silks. Dimensions are small, 6 inches by 3 inches, roughly. I want the piece to be intimate and since I am not sure if it will finally be on periwinkle blue linen background or on white linen which I will dapple with thousands and thousands of rich blue seed stitches to make is appear that the background is blue, I am actually going to work two pieces simultaneously and see which one pleases me the most.

I'll keep a running blog of both results. Feel free to tell me what you think.

Morning visitor

I haven't written for a couple of weeks since I have been working on some family matters which have swallowed up most of my free time. But as I was working on Saturday morning at my computer, look what walked by my window and just stood there looking at me, waiting for me to snap her picture..

Today, it rained most of the morning so I stayed in and finished my 'Horseman of the Bayeux'... here it is.

The Bayeux stitch is rather like a weaving, with three layers of embroidery straight stitches laid one on top of the other, in three different ways: a) a series of parallel long stitches b) then at 90 degrees to these, spaced every 1,5 cms or so, another long stitch, thereby holding down the first layer, and then c) a small catching stitch every centimetre along this second layer, thereby sealing the whole. Each of the areas to be embroidered is defined by stem stitch. These layers of stitches create texture and movement. The horse seemed almost to gallop off the linen ground.