Smithsonian Institution Window Crewel Pillow by Mazaltov's

 

Happy New Year 2022 to you all ! I hope you are all well and had a lovely Christmas .

The weather has been very stormy here . One big lightening strike took out our power and caused much  misery . We are back on again now , thanks to a good electrician .

Yes , it has been so gloomy . I,d love to see a bit of snow to brighten the place up , but snow rarely happens here . 

I have got a nice log fire going in the wood burning stove , to cheer us all . I sit and watch the flames from my comfy armchair . Deep in thought . I try to steer my mind from so much worry and depressing news on both the t.v and the internet .

Got to keep cheerful ! My embroidery comforts me  . I'm still working away on the Smithsonian Institution Window Crewel Pillow by Mazaltov's .  Such a long name I know ! That's what it says on the kit ! 

It is a 1970's vintage kit , but in the style of an 18th century embroidered pillow . It had not been started , but did have some of the wool missing . The colours are nothing like on the coloured picture on the front of the kit and the instructions would be very confusing if I didn't already know how to do some of the embroidery stitches.  It is very pretty and I think it would look nice on my kitchen chair .

I had thought that it would be fairly easy to do , but there are so many teeny tiny elements to stitch . I am finding it can take me an hour to stitch just one or two small flowers or a leaf . I do usually like to stitch slowly , but now I find myself trying to go faster as I had rather thought that I,d have finished this by now ! 

I try to do a couple of flowers  in bed , before switching off the light and it helps me to get off to sleep .

I have finished all the red and green areas  and am putting in all the lemon yellow flowers .

I'm saving the delicious orange flowers until last . They will be my reward for all the tedious red and green ! 

I ran out of the red crewel wool . Back in the 70's I could have contacted the company and they would have sent me some more wool ....anyway ... I  managed to match it up with some red wool from my crewel wool hoard in the cupboard !

Matching up the small piece that I had left , was very tricky and I think I must have spent a couple of hours trying to get the correct shade .

So what did Santa bring you ? I have a couple of new dolls to show you in up coming posts . So watch this space !