Merry Christmas !

 

                              Wishing everyone a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas .

  It is a bitterly cold day today , windy ,  dark and gloomy . 

I have brought in more kindling to keep the fire going .

 We have hot water bottles on our laps and blankets to keep us warm .

               I have almost finished this sweet little chap .

I am just working on the grapes . Colonial knots again . 

I find Colonial Knots quite therapeutic .  This piece which I embroidered , is from the 12th century manuscript illuminations and art of St Hildegarde von Bingen  .

                                                     🌿🍇🌿

Early Medieval Bird Illumination embroidery - update 3

 

Sitting in the car doing a bit of embroidery while husband has his hospital appointment .

               I made a very slow start on this leaf . I couldn't remember how best to do it !

It was cold and I forgot to bring my hot water bottle and warm blanket this time .

                              I muddled my way along with it !  

At home , later on , I finished the two leaves .

Me thinks they don't look too bad . 

I then made a start working the grape-vine stems in stem stitch .

                                                               🌿🍇🌿

 Illumination from manuscript known as the Sacramentaire de Gellone 780-800 - 8th century

Early Medieval Bird Illumination embroidery - update no 2

 

                                                                      

Early Medieval Bird Illumination crewel embroidery 🌲

 Look at that gorgeous linen ! Much nicer to handle than the cotton fabric I used in my last project .

So this little illumination design comes from a manuscript known as the Sacramentaire de Gellone - 8th century - 780 - 800 .  So very old !  

 

Almost finished ! ⚓

 

Took me a very long time to do all those lines ! It really makes a difference though .

I regret not using linen . This cotton gets very crumpled  .

I folded it over and hand stitched it into a little purse .

 I hemmed the top , in readiness for inserting a simple drawstring  . 

I have to put it aside for a while as I need to buy some drawstring cord or tape . Also I may add some tassels along the bottom of the purse ....but , I  haven't decided yet  .

So then , on to the next little project .......

Early Medieval Fish Illumination - Embroidery- waves ⚓

I've gone back to this one again .

I decided to fill in all the lines in between the fish , representing the waves , as on the manuscript illumination .  

I have mentioned before that this is from an 11th century lectionary manuscript illumination from the Abbey de Silos . In the National Library France .

I'm using cotton embroidery thread for these very thin lines . It's going to take a long time stitching them in .

 It must have taken a very long time and a great deal of care for the monk scribe drawing them in with his quill and ink .

                                                                  🌿🕊️🌿

My Little Early Medieval Embroidery Bag 🕊️🌿

 I embroidered a little more of this . I hand stitched it into a useful little needlework bag  .

                                          I think it is just about done . 

 I may just embroider an initial or some small thing in the space where my scissors are in this picture .

 I do have something in mind , so I will be coming back to this again soon .

              I could also add something , maybe , to each end of the toggle .

           It is perfect for just the few essentials I need when doing my embroidery .

                                                        🌿🕊️🌿

The other side

            ...... and for that one person who always asks to see the back ! 

An Angel for Christmas

 

I have been working on this for ages , never quite happy with it , but at last I think he is finished .

                                Worked in a mixture of threads .

Cotton , silk , gold and a few seed beads .

It is the Censing Angel from the Stained Glass Window in the lovely Church at Cattistock in Dorset . Designed by William Morris .

                                                                 🌿🕊️🌿  

                                                                         

                                                                      

Knots Toggle and Loop

 

                                                       🌿🩵🌿

Daisies in Bullion Stitch

 

I worked the Daisy flowers in Bullion stitch .  Probably not historically correct .... 

 ......... also not the neatest bullion stitches . I think they improved as I went along .

 I haven't done Bullion stitch for a while .  Practice makes perfect !

                                                               🌿🕊️🌿

The Luttrell Psalter - British Library add MS 42130 (medieval manuscript , 1325 -1340) f151v