Cornflower

Comfort & Joy

    I didn't manage to finish these in time for Christmas, but they'll do for general winter wear anyway; they are the Comfort & Joy socks by Olivia of This Handmade Life.

    I used the specified wool - Camarose Yaku - and have plenty left for another similar project.

    The heel shaping (known as  a strong heel, apparently) was a new technique for me and I'll be interested to see how it fits compared to my usual flap-and-gusset kind. 

    The hand-embroidered project bag is from Sherry Iris.

    (Edited to add: you can find Olivia's patterns on Etsy, too.)

Hemmed in

    My first attempt at hemstitching.

    This is the Sweet Scissor Mat designed by La-D-Da, part of the Small Samplers Club from De Handwerk Boetiek. The kit came with extensive instructions on how to finish the piece using the hemstitching technique: drawing threads, mitring corners, precise hemming. It took a good few hours of careful work, but I'm delighted with the result and I'll certainly finish more stitched pieces in this way.

Charlotte Murdoch 1815

    This is Charlotte Murdoch 1815, a reproduction sampler from The Scarlett House, and a first for me. I've been admiring the sampler walls I've seen on Flosstube and Instagram and thought I'd like to have one of my own, so I've made a start on it with this sweet little Scottish piece.

    I looked for Charlotte in the records and discovered that she was a farmer's daughter, born in Elgin in the north of Scotland in January 1804. She stitched her sampler in 1815 and sadly lived only another 3 years, dying in October 1818 at the tender age of 14.

    I love that she chose to feature dogs in her work, but I'm amused at the colours she used for them (dark green and ointment pink alongside the more usual browny-beige and white). And a further idiosyncracy: did it bother her, I wonder, that she ended up with insufficient room to complete her surname and had to slip the 'H' into the line below?

    Whatever the answer to that, her diminutive sampler* is charming and I'll be glad to have it on my wall.

*Mine measures 4" x 4 3/4" and was stitched on 36 count Edinburgh linen in Light Mocha/Mushroom with all the specified threads.

Scottish samplers

 

    If you happen to share my interest in samplers, and specifically Scottish ones, you may like to know that Naomi Tarrant's out of print book Remember Now Thy Creator: Scottish Girls' Samplers, 1700-1872 has just been made available by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland as a free download.

    I've been leafing through it this morning and would say that it looks like a marvellous resource.

    For more on the subject, there are a couple of interesting videos on the National Museum of Scotland's website relating to the 2018/19 exhibition Embroidered Stories: Scottish Samplers (see also the book), and Antique Samplers has a huge collection of pieces and a great deal of information. Janet Rae's book Warm Covers: A Scottish Textile Story has a wider remit but is also very much worth reading.

Just before they go away ...

    Christmas stitching: 'All is calm' is an adaptation of a free chart designed by Christina of Whilst Iris Naps, while the 'Sleigh Bells Ornament' is by Stacy Nash. Both pieces were stitched on 36 count raw/natural Edinburgh linen and are back in a Liberty print; the jingle bells can be found here.

Pleated into rills

   

    "The dresses were formed from narrow lengths of the finest Japanese silk, hand-stitched together and then pleated into rills like the delicate underside of a field mushroom through a process involving heat, ceramic rollers and water, to create a shimmering, clinging tube of impossible lightness and loveliness that pooled at the feet and that was Grecian in both form and intent.

    Murano glass beads suspended on strings of twisted silk dot the shoulders and seams and weight the skirts to stop their fluttering, while the pleats skim the swell of stomach and curve of hips in a heavenly palette: crushed marigold, Tiepolo pink, silver-grey, teal, salmon, pale blue, ivory and black. The most expensive are dusted with gold; stencilled with Greek key patterns and medieval fleur-de-lys."

    Fortuny's* Delphos gowns as described by Claire Wilcox in Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes.

    *But as recent research shows, Mariano Fortuny was not solely - or even largely - responsible for these dresses!

(This old post has more pictures).

Seasonal stitching

    This is 'Mighty Acorn' from the 'Winds of Autumn' book by Blackbird Designs, stitched more or less as charted.

    I used 40 count 'Biscuit' linen from NorthSamplerHouse and in real life it's a much warmer, nicely biscuity shade than the beige that's showing here.

   The piece is only 5 3/4" by 9" but it took a good five weeks (as my sole project) to do.

x 3

    ... 6 to go (details below).

Crossing places

    I recently discovered Flosstube (that is the cross-stitching community on Youtube), so I've bought some linen and thread and what you might call an 'instant gratification' chart and made this little thing - the first of a set of tiny alphabet samplers. I've backed it with Liberty Tana lawn and stuffed it with unspun wool and lavender. I understand that the convention is to display such small pieces in pretty bowls or antique dough troughs, but for now mine is hanging as you see.

Seasonal stitching

When you wish ...

upon a star ...

    Many months ago I bought myself an Advent calendar from The Stitchery, and day 1's delight was the makings for this little chap.

Luna

    This is Luna Lapin, all stitched by hand and such fun to make. Materials, kits and whatnot can be found here, and other creatures are available!

Alone with a book

    I've just finished stitching this little scene - 'Under the Pear Tree', part of the 'Haven' collection of kits from The Stitchery. It was such a pleasure to work, especially the French knots!

Patterns

    

    Take a look at:

     Purl Soho's Library Blanket,

     Katie's Kep, this year's Shetland Wool Week hat,

     Nicki Franklin's Antique Quilt Needle Case,

    Ann Wood's sweet needle book.

Lift your spirit with colour

    A bit of Kaffe and Brandon to brighten the day.