Divine Love upon the Wheel Hildegard von Bingen Relaxing Sunday Stitching

 Sacred Sunday relaxing stitching time .
    I filled in between those blue petals , using long and short stitch . Starting from the outer edge shading from light to dark , but trying to capture the mysterious dark shapes at the base of the petals .
     These shapes vaguely resemble birds or maybe fleur de lis or maybe are just dark shadows , but still I tried to get them right .

I put in the thin yellow bands at the bottom and then decided to work on the background .
Those are just what I call anchoring stitches , they will give support to the stitches which I will work over the top of them , going the other direction .
 All of the areas which I have completed so far which look in appearance to be white , are actually off white and the background is slightly darker still almost oatmeal . This is because I want that band of God's love pouring down , to be brilliant white and to really stand out . Even God's hand is not quite as brilliant white as this band between the black outlines . The painting is quite deliberate in it's illumination technique and I think it is wonderful ! 

 

Anglo - Saxon Brooch from St Augustine's Abbey Canterbury

We escaped the wrath of Hurricane Ophelia and enjoyed a couple of days up in Tewkesbury . I packed up a bit of 10th century embroidery to relax with in the evening .
 I am stitching the beautiful Anglo-Saxon brooch which is in the museum at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury . I found the picture of it on the St Louis Community College website , an education site , who in turn got it from the St Augustine's Abbey museum . If I am not allowed to use this pic , let me know and I will remove it .

This Anglo - Saxon brooch has glass inlays , at first sight I saw it as being bold primary colours of blue , white , red , green and yellow....and pull these colours from my mighty hoard of wool ...but as I look closer I see many more subtle shades within it and end up with many more little bundles of crewel wool in my basket .

I begin by stem and crewel stitching , a mixture of both , around all of the design lines....I,m not all that happy about this dark brown....it might not work..but let's see how it goes .
 I try to always begin and finish on the front , so it is kept tidy with no knots or bumps on the reverse . ...if you can do this , then that is brilliant...keep on perfecting it !
......but as a beginner ,  I always did tie a knot and make a terrible mess on the back and if thats where you're at and you are having fun , then I say , you should just carry on having  fun  ! Knots , tangled threads, loops and all !
Dont worry about it !
 Dont block your beautiful imagination and fun ..the reverse wont be seen by anyone when you,ve finished it . I know there will be people who will disagree with me , but I think you should let your creative imagination flow and you can learn to perfect it later on , especially if you are a very young person .

      Here I am snipping the thread that I have woven through the stitches on the front .
                                   I cant wait to start throwing in some colours .

           Here is the reverse , not too bad , but there are a lot more stitches to come .
 I,m home in Cornwall again now ....they had a lot of rain here in Mullion , but the wind wasn't too bad . We didn't have any trees down and my greenhouse is still standing . Everyone is telling me how awesome the waves were !  I love to see the sea when it's wild  ! (from a safe distance)
   However ..there's more stormy weather coming in on Saturday ....and it is feeling colder now too ....sigh... haul in another basket full of split logs for the fire .
 I had my flu jab ....ouch !   It's Australian Flu this time ... it's going to be really bad they say .

The last few stitches ... little medieval witch .

I thought I,d finished , but as I looked at this more close up photograph , I noticed on her shoulder , under her chin , a very small area unfinished still , just a few more orange stitches ....maybe just three little stitches ....
                                      I,ll soon put those in and then away . . .  . .

                                                ......and on to the next thing ....

Le Point de Bayeux - The Bayeux Tapestry Stitch

                  Prepare outline of design shape to be filled using point de tige .

Yes, lets set the Bayeux Tapestry Stitch apart from the rest and learn a little French !
Ha ! Ha !  Point de tige -- is Stem Stitch !

 O.k so I got a little bit carried away with my Stem stitched outline and stitched a Quatrefoil window !( I also used plain easy Satin stitch for that ).
  My wool arrived ..I think I already mentioned that I,m using Appleton's Crewel wool .
 I ordered mine from www.vikingloom.co.uk . Surprised to see new labels !
I,m using a beautiful piece of antique linen .

        Point de lancé  -  Take the thread from side to side, but not across the back .

   Barrettes -  Perpendicular threads carried across about 5mm apart ..and once again ,not across the back .

 Picots  - tiny slightly slanting stitches which hold down the Barrettes . About 5mm apart alternating .

The reverse - shows how this embroidery style does not waste precious hand-spun and dyed wool .

I managed to do this piece without a frame , but if I were doing a larger piece , then I would definitely use one .

          I,m beginning to love the Point de Bayeux  ! Maybe I will do a larger one !

Medieval Prince

 This is a piece I,ve been working on over quite a long period of time, little by little, whenever I have had a few spare minutes .
I still have quite a bit to do on this before it is finished . I have made a cord for his belt , the horse will have pendants and  tassels..I might put some stars in the sky and there will be more flowers in the grass .

   With a goodly selection of shades in my bag  at all times , I moved about the linen , as my mood took me ....drawing on the animals in pencil as they came into my mind ...or were suggested to me by friends and even interested passers by .The Prince on his  horse with his crossbow , was from the cover of an old book , it was just an outline ,there was no colour picture of it so I was free to choose the colours . The inspiration for the animals came from 13th century illuminations .

                              Here are a few photos that I took along the way .

                                                    Lots of hiding creatures .

                        A Jay up in the tree..I think I later stitched a nest for her to sit in .

                                           Trout in the pool amongst the tree roots .

                I have made a cord for his belt ...to sew on ..coming soon .

                       The trees  , I wanted to be similar to those in the Bayeux Tapestry .

At this stage I had no idea that I would eventually fill the whole of the linen cloth .

                                                           The startled Raven .

                                   Soft comforting crewel wool and beautiful colours .

   

 I didn't use a frame , I rarely do ..I don't mean ..never..just , only occasionally ..but not for this piece .

                                               My trusty chenille needle .

                                                       A dragon appears !

                             So many shades of green ...my favourite colour !

                                        That Dragon again coming to life !

                I will return to this and I have plans for it ,  but now it is time to start something else ........

Furry Creatures continued...

 Very fiddly , this Tufted Stitch is very scary ! The caterpillar on the kit picture has been worked slightly differently to the kit instructions diagram , which gives the caterpillar more  stripes ...I think he looks proper Cornish ..and decided to work him with more stripes. I still need to stitch in his antennae and feet .
 Then on to that squirrel . I forgot to take a picture here , of the guide lines that I found helpful to draw on with a pencil , to remind myself of the stitch direction , the way the fur lies .
 One of the annoying things about these kits is trying to make sure the stitches cover the printed lines . When I design my own  pictures I use a pencil and as I work over it, the pencil lines disappear . When I have completed this kit , I will go back over it and tidy up all those turquoise lines .
 I continued with three shades of the crewel wool for his bushy tail .

 Looking good so far ,This stitch has various other names such as Carpet stitch and Turkey Work . Then to carefully snip all the loops .

All loops carefully snipped and then I spent a very meditative 20 mins or so just teasing apart each of those snipped woolen threads , to give it a more blended and softer squirrelly tail look .
 Tomorrow I,ll begin the rabbit, which has just a little bit more of this tufted stitch for his tail  .
  It's all good practice !