Little Cloth Book Cottage - a change of plan

  Not really a change of plan , because there is no plan , I,m making this up as I go  .

 I decided to unpick the "take a deep breath " .
I felt that the cottage needed more space , so I took a deep breath  , a pair of scissors and snippety snip , I pulled it all out !
              Now I,m not sure about the Home Sweet Home  ?
                     Anyway , to begin with , I want more blue sky !

 So I gave myself a very meditative hour, stitching a big blue sky .

Happy to be me :)

Ha ha ha ! Belly Dancing me !

 Scribbled on with pencil and stitched with Perle cotton thread and DMC cotton threads . Mostly back stitch , stem stitch , satin stitch , a few Colonial knots for my ear-rings and flower centres , some of my hair is couching stitch , Lazy daisy stitch flowers  and very raggedy Button-hole stitch around the edges of the page ... especially at the bottom to give the effect of long grass .

                                                I love to dance !

 A very simple and roughly stitched Button-hole stitch around the edge .

And for those who always want to look at the back ! I started and finished with a knot and tail on the back . 
 When I do my crewel work , especially more precious projects , then I usually start and end on the front .
  For my simple little cloth book , its free and easy who cares kind of stitching !

So now the first page that I did , does not look colourful enough !
   I think if I do a more colourful button stitch around the edge , it might help to make it work again .
    I,m making this up as I go along you see . I,m really loving these cheerful colours .
 I was deciding which page to do next  .....

                                             ....... this one maybe  ?

       At that very moment I looked up and saw these two hearts in the sky !
                                                 A sign maybe !

Hippy Stitches

Another page started

I'm using some Cotton perle embroidery threads  size 8 for this page . Nice bright and cheerful colours !
 Comfort stitching straight from the heart !

Divine Love upon the Wheel - A Little Lenten Project

                                   Choosing and matching up colours .
 I had this little piece of embroidery in mind , to work on over Lent , which will begin on Ash Wednesday 26th February this year.
               Easter being on Sunday April 12th.
But I changed my mind and decided to begin it now after hearing of the passing of a very dear friend Rev.Fr.James Courtney OSB . A monk from Buckfast Abbey who came to serve here , for a short while at Mullion . A  kind , generous and very holy man ....who will be sadly missed by all in the parish .
      He will be in my thoughts and prayers while I stitch this .
It is a small section of an illumination manuscript of St Hildegard von Bingen . From Part 3, Vision 5 of the " Book of Divine Works".
 It is a small section of a much larger picture/painting . I chose to do the hand of God pouring down His love and Peace on us all .
   It is called " Divine Love upon the Wheel ".
   

                      I have sketched it out in pencil on a scrap of linen .

      The Illuminations/paintings of St Hildegard of Bingen are just so beautiful and amazingly modern looking , the colours are incredible for the time that she lived between 1098 - 1179 .
     They all come from the visions that she had from the age of three , and on throughout her life .
 Nobody knows for sure if she painted them herself or just described what she saw to another nun or monk who painted them as she dictated . She wrote books on herbs , diet and medicine . She wrote beautiful music ..I have no doubt in my mind , that such a creative person could certainly have been an artist too !
     I have stitched many small pieces from these illuminations , you may remember when I was embroidering " medieval stars " in a post a little while ago . They were fun little things to stitch ! This illumination is from a copy done by the nuns in about 1230 called the Lucca manuscript .

  These are just simple guidelines done with a pencil , not especially accurate .

I am stitching over these guide lines , in the colours that I intend to embroider this little piece with .  These are also not meant to be especially accurate .
 This is no way meant to be a tutorial , but merely to show how I am doing it ....but if it inspires you then that is great !
    I am making decisions about colour and stitches as I go along and I like to see how it changes . Sometimes surprises , hopefully not too much unpicking .
                         A lovely way of meditation and prayer .
                                           Peace to you .