The Flower of the Fal Schooner embroidery - July update

 

Almost ran out of black crewel wool . Had to order some more and this time it was very hard to find .

                                          I decided to fill in the rose leaves .

                 Nancy suggested we stitch in the flag ...which I had to look up . 

     I was hoping it would be the nice and easy to stitch the Cornish flag of St Piran , but it was probably the Red Ensign .  Were they using this flag in 1912 ? We have earlier photos of her but it's difficult to make out the flag .

   Oh well , let me know in the comments section below  .

Anyway ......

So the Red Ensign with a teeny tiny Union Jack in the corner was very very fiddly ; but when I look at some of the real old antique sailor's ship woolies , they don't look much better , so please don't be too hard on me ! Just don't don't look too close lol ! 

So then I decided to make the whole thing wider . More stitching of sea and sky . It goes on forever !

I am no good at measuring things . I had no idea how this was going to turn out .

I still have to embroider the ship's lanterns . They were sailing through the night . That fateful cold November night. 

 

Here it is at the beginning when I pencil sketched it out on the linen . 

I have made it up as I went along and have seen it unfold before my eyes , just as you have , if you have been following along with me . 

This is not going to be framed , it is not a sampler of lovely fancy embroidery stitches , but is simply part of a family history project to pass down the story to my grandchildren ...a sort of family history rag book . 

          It is a story that has to be told !

                                           🐬⚓🐋

I want to do another one of her sailing along in sunny and happier times ..... but I want to take another look at the mermaid that I was doing before this . Return to that one with fresh eyes and see what needs to be done to finish it ....maybe it is finished ....we'll see .

                                        Have a great week all !

                                                                        ⚓   

 

The Birds and the Bees

Time for an update !   It's been a very busy time out in my garden and then I had Flu which knocked me for six !  I have still worked on this little scrap of embroidery . A little more every day .
 I,m using crewel wool . I,m calling it my Cornish Folk Embroidery with Crewel Wool .  It's what I do . It's the way I love to do my embroideries .
As I stitch I feel all my cares and worries melt away .
 The sun is shining in the big blue Cornish sky , any clouds just passing us by .
Happy families down at the beach , ice lollies , sandcastles , surf boards , pasties and fun !

  And so I stitched , and brought in my friends . The Blue tits are nesting in that bird house .

                    The fat Owl who lives in our towering Pine tree .

 We have had a pair of Ravens nesting up there too this year . It has been beautiful to watch them raising their three chicks .
 I will have to put them in here somewhere ....and my grandson says " What about the Woodpeckers that are nesting up there too ? You must do a Woodpecker ! We love to see the Woodpeckers ! " .... I will have to put hem in somewhere too !

                            ........and the Badgers ....beautiful creatures .

  " Don't forget my Sweetpeas ! " says my husband " Our garden seat and the towering Giant Echium with the buzzing bees ! "

                                              Sorry it's a bit blurred ! 

                                   Beautiful fox quietly passing through .

          Blackbird hopping through the undergrowth . They have a nest nearby .

 I might change him slightly, change the colour of his eyes and feet ...and finish filling in the trunk of the towering Pine tree .

                                          Another little Blue Tit  .

        The new garden seat .  A nice place to sit and do my embroidery , close my eyes and listen to the birds and the bees .
   Hope you are enjoying the sunshine . Hope it is not too hot for you , take care . Drink more water . Keep cool .  Enjoy !  x

Briggs Garden Lady - Long Hot Cornish Summer Days

 
Yes , long hot Cornish summer days are here again ....and the local beaches are full of happy families , ice-creams , buckets and spades , sand castles , surf -boards and sun cream !
 Not for me...I,m sitting in our summer house in the shade with a fan on to cool me down and enjoying some stitching time ... it's too hot to do any gardening .

              I,ve completed quite a bit more and am putting in the little details .

             I thought I,d try and embroider the veins on the Pansies .......

........well , I wondered if I could ....I,m using crewel wool..which is quite thin ...thinner than tapestry wool ....

 ....but still too thick for the delicate veins . So I thought I,d try splitting the crewel wool . It was a bit fiddly but not impossible !

It didn't have to be perfect , I just wanted to give a suggestion of them being Pansies .

 This would probably look better worked in embroidery cottons or silk ...fuzzy wuzzy Pansies ... lol !

 Crewel wool is not really all that happy being split apart , as you can see in this pic...but it can be done ...it is not too bad if you use a much shorter length than usual and be very , very gentle with it .

 I,ve added more flowers and outlined some of the basket to make it stand out more .

I always have a little Robin following me when I ,m gardening ...so I put him in from another vintage embroidery transfer .....and pots with Pelargoniums...blue Lobelia .

                                             Then I thought......bees !

          Bzzzzzzzz .... By the way , the Red Hot Poker flowers  I worked in Bullion stitch with my chenille needle .
  I sought advice from Mary Corbet over at  https://www.needlenthread.com/   about a suitable make of needles ....but I think the American Bullion Needle size numbers seem to be different to ours over here in the U.K.
    Then I discovered Tulip Hiroshima Bullion Knot Needles "Big Eye"..these are brilliant and make nice straight bullion knots ...unlike the ones I did with my Chenille needle .......however ...I like the way the knots turned out sort of fat at the bottom and more like Kniphofia flowers ! See what I mean in the pic above .
  Now I have several packets of ordinary Bullion Knot Needles in different makes and sizes AND these lovely Tulip Hiroshima Bullion Knot needles to play with !

             ..............then I got carried away and maybe put in too many bees !

Sometimes it's just nice to get carried away ..takes me away from thoughts of things going on out there in the world . Happy here in my own little world !

Briggs Garden Lady - in pink !

   First of all I apologise for the poor quality pictures , my camera is playing up !

                              My Ula bag ... Ula is Cornish for Owl  ....
                                 All packed and ready for a trip .

  We have had a few more hospital appointments , husband this time , but I have found comfort,calm and peace in the hospital waiting room with my embroidery in my hands .
 We have also had a few nice short breaks away in Devon and Dorset again where I have found time to relax and stitch a little .

                           
                                I finally settled on pink for her gown .
                     It is coming along , I am doing a little every day .

   

Briggs "Garden Lady " transfer no 12305

                                       She's in the frame and we're off !

After working the trellis , I thought I,d do the red climbing roses ...possibly the lovely softly fragrant Climbing Rosa Guinee I think ..I need more practice with that fiddly Bullion stitch !
 I decided to call her my Briggs Garden Lady...rather than No 12305 . Also ,I only have the very fragile transfer .There is no colour picture or instruction leaflet . So I,m making this up as I go along  .
 Hope you are enjoying your Bank Holiday and half term week .

 

Anglo-Saxon Brooch Progress

I,m stitching all the guide lines and thinking about the colours that were used in Anglo-Saxon glass and enamel .... the things that were added in the making of the glass , such as iron, manganese , magical cobolt for that gorgeous blue , lead , copper , tin ,antimony .
I want to try and get those beautiful colours .

 Snuggled up on my bed with my hot water bottle and my little friend , listening to Enya , while outside the storm rages .

Actually the storm (Brian) didn't hit us too hard here in Mullion , but brushed past us , still it was wild out . We took a drive to see the waves from a safe distance . Here looking over Poldhu and across to Gunwalloe .

           The tide was going out actually , here looking over Mullion Harbour .

        I used three shades of this green  421 422 and 424 Appleton's crewel wool .

                                         ...and took out my new red scissors !

I suppose  you could say that I,m doing padded satin stich here , but the lines are so thin . I did long stitches for the under stitches  but I,m not really making this padded or raised .

That was all quite tedious , so next I,m going to reward myself with a delightful bit . Those zoomorphic doves .....at least that is what I think they are ....
                         ....... What  do you think ?
 ..The sun just came out and the wind has gone ..blue sky ...we're off to church .
Have a lovely Sunday all !

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 .