A Little Further Down the Country Lane Briggs

So , for the lady gathering flowers in her pretty cottage garden , I took out and re stitched her blouse a Primrose yellow , as is quite clear on the Briggs Leaflet .

      She also has a white bonnet , which will show up more when I fill in the porch .

And then , after all I said about saving the best bits to last , I couldn't resist embroidering her little gossiping friend !  
  On the leaflet it looks as if there is a third figure leaning over the gate , but after scanning it in and enlarging it , I can see that it is just delphiniums and lupins ,which are  purple and blue French knots  , the sweet pink roses around the porch,  are Raised Rose Stitch .

I remember very little of last year , recovering from a big op and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , I found it so hard to sleep and it makes me feel very .frightened .
      Embroidery with lovely soft crewel wool is very soothing and helping it to fade away . Indeed  Briggs created and gave out crewel kits for convalescing , wounded service men during war times .I often wondered what a soldier must have thought on being given an embroidery kit to do !
     Along with gardening , I,m finding  it is remarkably calming .
 Another time I will show you one of these kits .  A Briggs Jacobean Crewel Cushion panel that I have tucked away .
 Any how  ,It is pouring down with rain here in Mullion and what I was going to say was , how this picture is making me look forward to hopefully a glorious Spring and flower filled Summer .
  "  You pick yourself up ...dust yourself down ..and start all over again ! "  
    Sometimes I have to unpick stitches and start again too  .
                 

A Country Lane - Briggs

 One of several projects that I,m working on at the moment is a lovely old Briggs  crewel embroidery " A Country Lane "

 So when I,ve cleared the table , I,ll show you whats in my little sewing basket .

 This was such a delightful find , already started ,the linen stamped with this lovely country cottage scene .  A bundle of Penelope Crewel Wool came with it , not all the colour numbers matched the list on the leaflet and I had a job to find and buy a few more .

When I begin a project such as this , I generally start with the most tedious and boring parts first , then when I really cant bear to do any more , I treat myself to stitching an area that is more satisfying  , such as the flowers . Who ever began this before me, had started with the best bits and then got bored ,  I can tell ! ...and then I can see that maybe someone else had tried to finish it with huge stitches and realised that their stitching was no way as fine , to be fair ,they gave it a good go and gave up .

I have had to take out quite a lot of it . I,m mostly doing it by looking at the picture on the leaflet , which is falling apart and very hard to see the colours and stitch directions  . The black and white photo inside the leaflet is no help at all either ! I,ve scanned it into my computer and enlarged it and still it is difficult to see . It is a very painterly design ,which I suppose gives me a little more freedom .

                                  A couple of areas that I had to unpick and re do .

The vintage Penelope Crewel Wool  is in good condition and pulls surprisingly beautifully from the middle of the skein .

Whilst stitching this , I am deep in thought about what I am going to embroider with all the beautiful real silk threads that I have slowly been gathering ....I need a good few more  green shades and a couple of violet blue and rosie purple  ...sigh ...I,m a firm believer that colours are good for you !  Happy stitching  : )