Comfort Stitching - Autumn

Autumn has arrived , rainbow leaves tumbling in the wind .
Breezy dog walking down our country lane , I gather pretty leaves and wish that they would keep their beautiful brazen colour on the trees for longer ... the weather has been mild during the day , cold by night ..but no frost . Last night we had some rain ...dry today here in Mullion , but the cold North wind is blowing .
 Time to dig out the warmer jackets .

                         So I came home with my handful of pretty leaves .
To my cupboard of wool to find Autumn colours , needle and thread ....

I found an old vintage tray cloth , a lovely , soft piece of honey coloured  linen and with a pencil drew around my leaves ....I found a way to save my pretty leaves ! I began to stitch ..just simple easy needle-painting with my crewel wool .

I felt that I had to work fast in the beginning , as my leaves are turning crisp and the colours changing . This , I thought , is good for me, teaching me not to obsess about my work nor linger too long .....

Always several projects on the go ! I,m making wreaths and birdies and dolls and aprons and always thinking , thinking ahead of what I will make in the future .....

Once I have stitched around the outside of  my leaves , I worked the veins , I chose my colours and realised I could slow down the pace , this is not a race after all and now it becomes more relaxing ......the way I like to stitch .....what I call my "comfort stitching" ...... sigh .... breathe ......relax .....

    "Comfort stitching" is just my stitching for joy and relaxation .....please dont ask me " Yes , but what is it going to be ?" ...It is just a joy to do ...a simple reflection... a meditation ....a prayer .

                       The soft crewel wool is comforting in my hands .

Today I noticed the Oak tree changing , they turn from Emerald green and gold then to paper bag brown and hang on to the branches far longer than the other tree's leaves .

         I gathered a few branches blown down during the rain last night .

               I worked the outline and veins of a plain brown Ivy leaf .....

...enjoyed painting the scarlet Hawthorn leaf ...the trees are heavily laden with berries .

Another Ivy leaf ....this one is butter yellow . I worked closely couching the veins in the same colour as the rest of the leaf .

This afternoon I baked a chicken,bacon and mushroom ,n,vegetables pie with a puff pastry crust , a pile of mash and buttered carrots . We took the dog for her second walk down the lane .I gathered a few more Hawthorn leaves as my other ones had changed their hue.
 Later on I relaxed on my bed and worked the little randomly scattered straight stitches between the veins on that brown Ivy leaf . I work these stitches which gently support the"long and short"stitches that I will stitch over the top of them .
 I noticed some dark spots on the sycamore leaf and put them in with tiny colonial knots ...I need to work the darker edges .

             The two original leaves and two freshly fallen Hawthorn .

 I left the brown Ivy leaf after couching the veins over and over...this leaf is just varying shades of brown ..tough on the eyes ....I will come back to it later .
I embroidered the central vein of the second little pencilled in Hawthorn leaf and am just deciding which way to work the colours .
   So that is as far as I have come with it today .
I,ll do a little bit more of it in my bed before I fall asleep .

 This is one of my dolls that I acquired a couple of years ago....but I will tell you about him another time .
 The Chicken pie was yummy !
  What are you "Comfort Stitching " ?

Anglo - Saxon Brooch Crewel more colour

It's been hard to find time to do my embroidery , we,ve been out and about so much .

I always carry my work with me in this bag and actually there are several projects packed away in here .
  It's a DMC Travel bag with lots of useful zippered pockets for my crewel wool , scissors , needles , it has file binder rings for my notes , pictures and patterns which I keep in plastic punched pockets ...and a pocket on the outside where I slip my glasses , emery boards and hand cream .
   Larger projects get rolled up in a pillowcase and tied up on the outside between the handles ...I find it very useful .

Anglo - Saxon Brooch Zoomorphic Doves

                             What do you think  ?  Could they be doves ?
Zoomorphic - the representation of animal forms in decorative art/ jewellery .

I embroidered the edge of the brooch with a dark olive ..it might be the edge of the brooch or maybe just it's shadow ....but if I make it into a needlecase , then this is where I could sew on a bead for fastening it . I haven,t decided yet what it will become..maybe a brooch ?

                         Now more fun ..adding colour ...I might go over the red and yellow spots , just to make them a tiny bit larger ...but they seem to be flat glass inlays on the actual brooch rather than jewels ..so I want to keep them flat .

                                      Some crewel wool from my hoard.
    American crafters have  "a stash ".....  English crafters have " a  hoard " ! :)

At first sight , I thought the whole of the ribbon cross was blue , but on further inspection it is only half blue and the other half is several shades of green .
 I can see where the little bits of glass have been dropped in..it is amazing and so beautiful !
 I have asked the St Augustine Museum in Canterbury for more information about this brooch and am waiting for some answers ..such as where it was found...who it might be associated with ..what metal is it made of ?
     I forgot to ask how big is it ?
 I,d also like to see some better photos of it as the only two that I,ve found on the internet are not very clear .
  So  I sent a message to the museum and Dito kindly put me in touch with Craig ( who is away at the moment ) I,m waiting to hear back from Craig who is in charge of the collections in the museum  .
It's just too far away for me to visit , although I would like to get there one day .

 Anyway , it's all so interesting and I,m so enjoying myself with all the learning and embroidering this Anglo Saxon brooch .

Medieval Stars

                                 I finally decided to stitch the flag of Saint George .

I decided that the stars should just sink into the background , not to make a big thing out of them with bright colours and definitely no beads  .
I only put a little yellow colonial knot into the centre of three of the stars .
 It got me thinking though , about medieval stars and how we often see them illustrated in early illuminations .

 I,ve been meaning to do something from the Bayeux Tapestry for a while and have a proper go at the Bayeux Tapestry stitch  .
 I thought I would start with something small .

    1066 Halley's Comet - Isti mirant stella - which translated means "The people marvel of the star ".
I chose to stitch it as it is now , with faded colours , although , it is said  , that on examining the reverse side , the colours have not faded all that much .
The  Bayeux Tapestry is actually Crewel embroidery and not a tapestry at all .
The word crewel comes from the old Anglo Saxon word "cleow " which is wool fleece spun into two fine threads and then twisted together .
 Worsted means a fine smooth thread which has been spun from long staple wool . Staple meaning the length of the fibre in the fleece .
 Crewel work is embroidery with this fine wool .

Sigh, my photos didn't come out , where I show you how I do Bayeux Tapestry stitch .(boring bit  ---Picasa have stopped running and I,m supposed to change over to Google Photos which is not as good as Picasa so I,m told .  So I will go away and see what I can do and put those pictures on next time hopefully . I am not a rocket scientist ! )

 I amused myself for a long while looking at the sun , moon and stars in old illuminations .
I love the flower like stars of the illuminations of the Visions of Hildegard von Bingen .
 I love the bright colours of these 11th and 12th century illuminations .

 I bought some lovely blue linen which looked lovely on line but turned out to be too thin really for my crewel work , so I decided to use it to doodle and experiment on .
I thought I,d give this very expensive Bohin white fabric marking pencil a try . I usually am quite happy with an ordinary pencil , well a soft lead one anyway ...my pencil has nearly worn out !

                               I drew it on freehand and actually went over it twice .

 By the time I had stitched around the star , the middle circle had worn away .
So, if I use this again in the future , I can see that I should only draw a little bit at a time .
It makes a beautifully fine line though .

It is a scorching hot Bank holiday Monday . The beach is filled with happy families once again . The roads are busy with people driving from place to place .
I take my little dog out nice and early ,while it is cool ,for her walkies , usually over at Goonhilly or the woods .

Then hang out the washing and retire to the Summer house to read and paint and stitch .

Too hot to do any gardening ....although maybe later as the sun goes down .

I,m thinking and praying for all of you caught up in Hurricane Harvey . Hope the rain will stop soon and help arrive swiftly to those of you who need help and rescue .

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 ........