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Monday 24 February 2014

IHSW and a Joyous Minuet for Elizabeth Burrows


IHSW hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings

The idea being to spend as much time as possible during the third full weekend of each month on your favourite pursuit - stitching!

This weekend I got LOADS done.  We all either have colds or are recovering from colds so from Friday until Sunday we hermitted together.  Apart from hubby who had a job on and had to keep us in wood for the burner.

On Friday I stitched my piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog, this month it's Vampires.  When I chose the topic for February I had this piece in mind so I was a little surprised when I pulled the magazine out to stitch her and realised she is supposed to be a witch!  Anyway, minus the broom and the dinky little hat plus some fangs she will look alot more vampy.

Brooke's Books from JCS Hallowe'en 2013

She's not really bald, I have left the black until last.  I also need to order some metallic black for her cloak.  And some beads, so that's biting into next month's Stitch from Stash budget.  Biting - get it? hahaha

On Saturday I stitched more of the Vampire and all of Day Four of the Spooky Countdown by Primitive Hare:


Cheery little block isn't it?

Sunday was dedicated to Day One from The Little Stitcher 12 Days of Christmas but I'm saving that for my themed TUSAL post.

And on to the Joyous Minuet for Elizabeth Burrows.  Elizabeth stitched this design in 1725 and the Minuet was a very popular dance at that time so I'm sure she would have skipped a measure or two when she finished her piece.  She was only 16 so I'm not sure if she would have allowed to attend dances, or maybe that was considered quite grown-up and time for a match to be found?  She is quite proud of her date of birth and includes it in the sampler along with the year of stitching.  An older unmarried woman may not have done this.  I read somewhere or other that many antique samplers have the date of birth unpicked so as not to give away the lady's age to any would-be suitors!!


Here's what I said when I started to stitch her back in January:

As most of you know I have been assisting Nicola with her Scarlet Letter Year Challenge.  The Challenge officially ends on 20th February 2014 but we will be continuing with the blogs and the stitching because it's such a great group of stitchers.  Anyway, there will be a Grand Prize Draw on the 20th for everyone who has completed a Scarlet Letter Sampler during the year.  So how embarrassing would it be if all I have to show is one large outlined band and a bit of blue? 

So when I won Elizabeth Burrows in the Advent Giveaways I knew I must try my best to stitch her!  The Scarlet Letter website says this about her "This small early eighteenth century English alphabet sampler is actually more challenging than it appears at first glance."

The 1725 on the frame refers to the date Elizabeth stitched her sampler, but this is the really exciting bit - in the bottom row it says 179, this is because Elizabeth also includes her year of birth 1709 but rather than use all four digits she uses 179 as that was how the year was pronounced then (Seventeen Nine, rather than Seventeen Oh Nine).  Now anyone who has my email address may recognise those numbers, they are my date of birth which I incorporated into my email addy!!  So it seems most serendipitous that this sampler chose to come to me to stitch her!  We are made for each other!

I used the 35 count linen that Nicola kindly provided me for this one and Janet Carsels.  The threads are three from Olde Willow Linen Threads which I won in a giveaway from Riona.  The fourth is a DMC.  I finished this one in plenty of time for the end of the blog, a whole two days early!!  The most challenging part was the counting over three for some of the bands.  You need to keep a good rhythm going for those.

Finally, World of Cross Stitching magazine are continuing their series entitled "Blogging Friends of Jo's" in this month's mag they feature Justine:

So why not pop over and say Hi to her!




18 comments:

Anne said...

Oh Jo! I hope everyone is okay now and the colds have left the building. I so enjoyed reading about Elizabeth Burrows and her little sampler. I didn't know that the girls didn't like to add their date of births. It was serendipitous that she chose you and that you share that date!! Also, just a bit of cool info, a Minute is usually in 3/4's time so it gives that waltz beat...ba ba ba, ba ba ba, etc. So how fitting some of the bands are stitched over 3 ^.^

Michelle said...

Oh Jo Elizabeth Burrows is stunning. I love the colours. Colds are running high here at the moment! x

Bianca said...

I just love the little vamp/witch!

Kaisievic said...

Hi Jo, I hope that you are all feeling better. Unfortunately your pic of the Elizabeth Burrows is not showing up on my iPad! But I am sure it is awesome.

Annette-California said...

Congrats on your beautiful finish of Elizabeth Burrows! Loved reading about her. Are you going to have her framed? Great progress on your wips. Sending you sunny well wishes and hope you all are better soon.
love Annette

Kristin said...

Hope everyone is better soon. I love your Spooky Countdown and your vampire. I can't wait to see her finished.

Kristin

Clare-Aimetu said...

Hugs. - I hope the bugs go away soon. Great stitching :-)

Thoeria said...

Lovely stitching! The little vampy/witchy is so cute!

Stitching Noni said...

I love your bat-witch.... perfect designs to adjust to a lady vampire!
Well done on your sampler - it is gorgeous :o)
Thank you for the link to Justine's blog - have been over to say hello!
hugs xx

Chris said...

Great stitching progress Jo!!

Lili said...

Lovely pick for the Halloween SAL.
I'm stitching my "dracula", not sure if I have time to finish it till the end of February...

Lovely new block of Spooky.
Elizabeth Burrows is gorgeous, love the colours!

Hugs,
Lili

Anonymous said...

Lovely stitching Jo and hope you are all feeling better now.

Julie said...

Hope you are soon all germ free and feeling much better.
EB looks fabulous as does your vampire. Could you not blend and use one strand black and one strand perhaps silver to sparkle the cloak and save some pennies?

Giovanna said...

Love all the stitching! I hadn't even noticed there was a noose in the Countdown, as I'm attacking a different area at the moment... hehe! Hope you get over your colds soon.

Linda said...

Congrats on the gorgeous finish Jo. Great progress on the other pieces.

Linda

The Inspired Stitcher said...

Elizabeth Burrows was meant to be stitched by you for sure. It turned out beautifully and just in time too. How about you being famous in the magazine?! That's so fun. Love seeing your progresses.

Karoline said...

Elizabeth is gorgeous, congratulations

geeky Heather said...

LOL at "Blogging friends of Jo's"...don't they want to feature an exotic stitcher from across the pond?!?

Congratulations on Elizabeth...she is awesome.