When we first moved in we have a piece of furniture behind the settee which I stood some stitching pictures on. As the Small Boy became more mobile and able to climb they got moved and put away. While looking for something else entirely this week I found them and this one too. I don't think I've seen this picture since we moved in, it used to be at the foot of the stairs in the old house.
The subject is Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland, a gorgeous Scottish Keep which was used in the film Highlander. I visited it back in the 1980s so when I started stitching and saw this kit I knew I had to stitch it. The design uses a mixture of one and two threads to give depth and texture to the picture.
It was one of the first pieces I got professionally framed by the lovely Ben of Frames of Norwich. The label on the back gives their address in St. Giles Street which puts this at late 1990s as he was originally somewhere else when I first used him.
Here are some close-ups:
This piece is back on the wall at home, for now! I had a little rummage around and found the original chart which is a John Clayton design called Dawn Mist at Eilean Donan. copyright 1997.
And that's when I struck stitching treasure! Because in the bag were a number of older neglected stitchings, some finished, some WIPS. Here are the photos!
A Bucilla kit called Max's Moon stitched in 2008. This was stitched on black aida using the threads supplied. The Large Boy loved cats and requested I stitch it for him. Unfortunately it never got framed. It will now, after a good iron!
A Needlepoise sampler called Bramble Harvest, stitched in the mid 1990s on 28 count evenweave. There's only one and a half bands left to do. I wonder why I stopped? I have the chart for the companion piece called Strawberry Sampler I should stitch sometime.
This is the sampler I stitched on a wonderful retreat, again back in the early 1990s. The bag it was in has a phone number for Middlesex beginning with 081 and those numbers were only used between 1990 and 1995. The design is by Jane Greenoff and is called Woodland Walk. I think it is probably OOP because the only online version I could find for this title is completely different!
The host chose this project because of the number of speciality stitches and different techniques used.
I've always been a little uncertain about the finished piece because it seems a little "empty" to me. I toyed with the idea of adding some extra motifs but never did.
Look, hardanger!
The next piece I remember buying at one of the Olympia shows in 2000. It's a Textured Treasure design called Southwest Garden by Karen E. Dudzinski. They had a hotmail email and a geocities website so rather technologically advanced for the era! Google reveals she still has a blog!
This is the cover photo which attracted me, not sure how much it would cost to cut those mounts!
And this is a close-up of one corner, sumptuous isn't it?
And the final ancient piece, the cover kit from Cross Stitch Collection issue 8!
What an exciting trawl through the past! I think my framer is going to love me. I use a lovely local lady now, she's half the price Ben was, even 15 years later! That's the city vs small town for you.
On to modern stitching now. I am speeding through Nora Corbett's S Fairy:
stitched on Oceanic Fantasia by Crafty Kitten
There's quite a bit of skin, lots of wing and another swirl at the bottom of the letter. Then Kreinik on the wings, backstitch and beads.
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Finally, I was emailed about a craftivist project recently - Stitching for Syria, Here's what the charity Concern says about their work "At Concern we run a host of activities helping Syrians caught up in years of war. These include teaching Syrian refugees and poor Lebanese women embroidery. Selling what they make gives these women a vital income, and the sessions themselves bring warmth, hope and friendship."
And here's their website to find out more - Concern. Basically, you sign up and they send you a free chart which you stitch and mail to them to make a hanging for their centre in Lebanon to bring hope to the women that go there. A donation would be nice too! It's a small pattern, only 30x30 so shouldn't take long to stitch. The project has literally only just been launched this week so needs all the publicity it can get!
There's also a video here - Meet-inspiring-women-behind-our-stitch-syria-campaign
