The Peacock's Feather

Prairie Schooler's February

This is the last of my 2013 finished--Prairie Schooler's "February".  A mere three finished last year.  How sad is that?  And this was a carryover from the previous year!  I am partial to anything February or Valentine's Day (though I am not much into the actual holiday I love the motifs--does that sound really weird?).

Isn't the little groundhog cute?  I actually have one that lives in my backyard.  We try and avoid each other as much as possible.

And one more close up.  I still need to get this framed, but it will go on one of my walls eventually!

I am working on a new Prairie Schooler sampler--something quite different than a snowy white and red design.  I shall share photos soon.  I think I definitely need some new visuals here--it's been the same designs for months and months.  I's quite excited about my new projects and try and add a few new rows as often as I can--a couple have been going to work with me--I usually slip something in my bookbag along with a book or two!

By the way many thanks for the kind welcomes--it is good to be back!

And a Little More Progress

I thought it was time to check back in and share my "February" progress.  I'm getting there, though I had actually hoped to finish this in February.  Now I am trying for the first day of spring.  As that is only two weeks away, it may be wishful thinking, but I'll keep working away on it.  I think I am ready to work on something a little more colorful, but I don't want this one to turn into a UFO.

I'm just about ready to begin the finishing on this little bee skep.  It is another Prairie Schooler design.  I just need to stitch my name or initial and the date, which I think will go on the back side.  I'd like to stitch over one, so we'll see how it goes.  I think I can manage this one before March 21.

And then there is my poor "Mystery Sampler" which I have completely stalled on.  I don't think I have picked this one up once this year, so I am hoping to pull it out and start working on it again.  There's quite a lot of filling in on this section and I'm just not motivated with that house! If I can just start adding stitches, I think I can fall back into the rhythm of working on it once again.

I though you might like to see the books I received for my birthday, which I just recently celebrated. 

The top book is Rebecca Stott's Samplers, which is a survey of the history of samplers from the 17th through 19th centuries both in Britain and America.  "This book, written by one of Britain's leading experts on the subject, and illustrated with superb photographs of a great range of samplers from Britain and the USA, provides an ideal introduction to these amazing embroideries, for collectors, and those interested in social history and the history of art."  Connecticut Needlework: Women, Art, and Family, 1740-1840 by Susan P. Schoelwer is another lavishly illustrated book with selections of needlework from the Connecticut Historical Society.  There are seventy examples of needlework.  With each plate is a detailed description of the piece along with its history.  I'd forgotten how much I love these sorts of books.  It's been a while since I've bought myself anything so nice.  A good friend gave these to me.  I need to get back into the habit of reading these sorts of books--I miss them.

The bottom book is not one I had come across before and was a lovely surprise.  Collect Raindrops by Nikki McClure is a book of the four seasons.  At first when I flipped through I thought it was illustrated with woodblock prints, but these are actually intricate paper cuts.  In her introduction, artist Nikki McClure writes:

"I make my pictures by cutting away at black paper with a knife.  The paper becomes lacelike and everything becomes connected.  What remains is a paper-cut, just black and white.  Color and texture are added later.  My words are letter-pressed or cut out by hand."

As the book is on the bottom of the pile (due only to its size), I'm not doing much justice to it.  You can see her work here.  I might just have to go back to collecting art books!

Have You Seen This Book?

I have Cornflower to thank for pointing out Jean Baggott's The Girl on the Wall to me.  You have to take a look at the video and hear the author talk about her work.  Her tapestry is absolutely amazing!  You only get a peek at it, but it must have taken ages to complete.  She says the design is made up of 73 interlocking circles each focusing on a different aspect of her life.  It is her own personal history of the twentieth century.  I broke down and have ordered the book and am hoping that along with the text there will be photos of her tapestry as I would love to get a better look at it.  Now that is quite an undertaking!

Have you read . . . ?

Have you read Rebecca Stott's The Coral Thief?

I've checked it out from the library several times and returned it unread, but it seems now is simply the right time to read it.  Paris in 1815 (warm, sunny Paris in July, too) is far more interesting than what I see outside my window today.  What I see is a sky filled with endless gray clouds and thick fog, which has unfortunately been going on for days and days.  Much better to escape into a novel, I think. 

The Coral Thief concerns a young student of natural history who is traveling to Paris after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.  After studying in Edinburgh he's thrilled to be going to such an exciting city to continue his research under the tutelage of the legendary Dr. Cuvier like so many other young men at the time.  However, he makes the mistake of falling asleep on the mail coach en route to Paris.  Sitting next to him is a beautiful young woman with a child who speaks perfect English and speaks to him of the new scientific thinking that's going on.  In the morning when he wakes he discovers his bag is missing.  His bag with all his notebooks, a manuscript, and rare coral fossils are gone.  And so is the beautiful young woman.  

"I tried to make out the full magnitude of what had happened.  Professor Jameson, I reminded myself, seeking to build bridges between British and French science now that the war was finally over, had entrusted me with gifts and a manuscript to take to professor Cuvier, probably the most important man of science in France.  The specimens and the manuscript were irreplaceable.  The loss was not only an embarrassment, it was a scandal.  This would almost certainly mean my return to the gray streets of Edinburgh, or to my father's house, shamed.  Even if I went to the police and could make myself understood, even if the specimens were found returned, the story would be the same: Daniel Connor had lost the rare and irreplaceable gifts entrusted to his care because he had dropped his guard and fallen asleep on the mail coach, seduced into a false sense of security by a beautiful woman.  It was pitiable."

How long do you think it will take until the beautiful young woman shows up again?  Not long at all I expect.

This is what I do in my free time when I'm not stitching.  Find a good book to lose myself in!

The Tenth Gift

Do you believe in ghosts?  Rationally I have to say I don't.  Perhaps, though, it's just possible that the aura of someone still lingers in the things they leave behind and that are passed on to each new generation.  Maybe this is a stretch of the imagination?  Jane Johnson's The Tenth Gift is a wonderfully entertaining read even if it may on occasion require a stretch of the imagination.  I'm usually willing to suspend belief somewhat for a story that keeps me captivated and makes me turn the pages as rapidly as I did even if I questioned some of the smaller details and motivations. 

Although a work of fiction, the book is based on historical fact.  Two stories set 400 years apart run parallel in The Tenth Gift.  Quite often with two competing narratives one will be the stronger of the two, but Johnson fairly seamlessly wove the two storylines together so they meshed into one larger picture.  The novel is set in 21st century London and 17th century Cornwall.  What prompted me to pick up the book in the first place is that a the heart of this novel exists a book of embroidery patterns, which links two heroines (both needleworkers), and the promise of an exotic adventure to far away Morocco. 

I'm familiar with the fact that pirates participated in the trade of humans as slaves, though I didn't realize they were so bold as to actually raid the southern coastline of England as well.  A captured ship meant prize money for the victors, whatever their nationality, who would return home with the ship and its contents.  The sailors and other human cargo caught by pirates, however, might be considered chattel.  If they were lucky their families would pay ransom to have them released and pity the poor souls whose family couldn't pay up.  I've even read that when he was a soldier Miguel de Cervantes was captured and ransomed before his famous days as an author.

Twenty-first century heroine, Julia Lovat, is given an antique book of embroidery patterns as a farewell gift from her married lover when he decides to call things quits.  Julia is crushed despite the fact that it's her own childhood friend that he's married to and hoping to make a fresh start with.  Although I did come to like Julia, she wasn't always the most subtle of people and had a few blundering moments in the story.  Her 17th century counterpart, Catherine Ann Tregenna, known as "Cat",  mirrored her in some ways.  Only nineteen she works as a servant in the house of a wealthy man in Penzance.  She's a talented needlewoman and hopes to make her escape from her provincial life by her work with needle and thread on an altar cloth she has been commissioned to create.  She notes her ideas for stitching patterns in a small book, where she also writes down details of her life.

Cat feels more imprisoned than ever when the mistress of the manor decides her wayward manner needs to be reined in and betroths her to her cousin.  Although a handsome man, she wants more than a stifling life married to a boring man with nothing to look forward to than bearing his children.  Be careful what you wish for however, adventure will come to her in a harrowing manner when she along with 59 other townspeople are stolen from their Sunday worship by corsairs--Muslim pirates from the Barbary Coast.

Now both the heroine's paths are set in motion.  Cat must endure a voyage in the stinking, dirty hold of a ship en route to Salé in Morocco and faces the possibility of being sold.  It's only her fine ability to use needle and thread that will give her any chance of real survival.  Julia is trying to make sense of her life knowing what a muddle she's made of things.  When her ex-lover realizes the real value of the book and tries to get it back using whatever method he can, Julia decides she has nothing to lose and travels to Morocco trying to trace what happened to Cat.

Unsurprisingly there will be a clash of cultures and religions between the women in both centuries and those men each encounter in Morocco.  I thought some of the situations might have been a bit contrived and quite predictably there is a definite element of romance to the story, the decisions the women making not really surprising me.  Still, I really loved the exotic descriptions of Morocco particularly modern day Morocco.  And it's not often I can read about needlework in novels, so I was especially pleased with that aspect of the story.  If you're looking for a good beach/vacation read this will sweep you away to another time and place!

Cross posted on my book blog:   A Work in Progress.

Vacation is Here!

What I might be doing for the next few weeks (but I make no promises)...

Although there is still the list (now down to three books left to finish, which may or may not happen at this point), I am really itching to start something new.  So, I think I am definitely going to read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.  I'll probably start Mary Elizabeth Bradden's Lady Audley's Secret and I'd like very much to squeeze in Sarah Bower's The Needle in the Blood, too.  Then there is Ada Leverson's The Little Ottleys, but I have a feeling I won't manage quite so many. 

Since I'll have lots of chunks of free time I'd love to work on some needlework projects.  I had hoped to finish my Toccata before the end of the year.  It would be great to make some progress on my reproduction sampler, Ann Kirby--so many strawberries to stitch on that border (it is quite large, though, so I am sure I'll be working on it for a very long time!).  I also have wanted to start working on a bookish design by Little House Needleworks called The Bookshelf.  I had thought of making author substitutions and choosing some of my own favorites, but I'll have to see how creative I'm feeling.  And then there is the problem of narrowing the list down to a very few. 

I have one more afternoon of shopping to get through (and fingers crossed the last couple of things I'm waiting for in the mail will arrive soon).  I might have to bake a batch or two of cookies (peanut butter blossoms and pecan sandies).  And I have lots of presents to wrap. 

I hope to go to a restaurant or two, will probably hit the library at least once.  I hope I can find some good movies to watch.  I might drag myself up to the gym on campus a few times.  No doubt I'll spend a little time daydreaming (I'm really good at that when the list I make includes things like dusting and laundry!).  Mostly I suspect I'll be very lazy!  As long as I have a book in hand I should have a very good break (and boy do I need it!).

New Needlework Books

I have splurged on a couple of needlework books recently.   I bought In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, knitters, lacemakers, and weavers in art by Gail Carolyn Sirna at my local museum's gift shop as they were having a sale.  I have wanted this book for a while now.  It has been on my Amazon wish list, but no one bought it for me.  I decided I couldn't pass up a discounted copy.  It is a lovely art book--lavish color illustrations on heavy, glossy paper.  It is well worth the money.  I shared a few favorite paintings on my book blog today as well.  I can't wait to go through and read everything.

The second book, The Needle and the Blood by Sarah Bower, is a fictionalized account of the making of the Bayeux Tapestry in the 11th century.  The blurb on the cover of the book reads "A powerful tale of sex, lies and embroidery".  The book has come highly recommended by one of my favorite Litbloggers.  It appears that the book is only available at the moment in the UK.  If you happen to be in the US, however, let me recommend The Book Depository as a good source for British books.  Oftentimes they discount, and more importantly they offer *free* shipping!  I hope to make this one of my summer reads!   

A Peek Inside

I thought I would give you a peek inside the book Petits Rouges: d'Ici et d'Ailleurs by Muriel Brunet which I mentioned last month.  I received it as a gift for my birthday.  Several people expressed interest in it, so I thought I would give you a peek inside. 

A variety of schoolgirl samplers (redwork) are shown from all over western Europe that were stitched in the 19th and 20th centuries.

I think you could easily take any of the samplers or motifs and adapt them to a design of your own.  It looks as though all the samplers that are shown have corresponding charts to stitch from.

I have never stitched a complete redwork sampler like any of these, but I might choose one to stitch as they are really lovely.

These designs might be a little large, but I thought they might look nice finished as biscornus!  So, have I tempted anyone??

Petits rouges: d'ici et d'ailleurs

I love redwork.  I wish I stitched more redwork projects and I envy other stitchers who have large collections of redwork.   Several links on my sidebar go to stitcher's websites or albums who have lots of redwork: Casa Mia is a favorite.  Catherine ABC and Vero M both have redwork in their albums, which I drool over (actually all the work in both albums!!) every time I go looking.  Nicki's album has a special album with just redwork.  And of course there are the lovely designs by Marjorie Massey.   I have a very small collection of redwork (maybe I should put together a special album for it) that I have either stitched or received--but it is a small collection.  And now I have another book on redwork to add to my small stack of needlework books.  Vero very kindly (merci!) sent me this new gorgeous stitching book, Petits rouges: d'ici et d'ailleurs by Muriel Brunet.  It shows antique sampler reproductions--originals stitched by schoolgirls in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and other countries.  It is a wonderful book and I am hoping to stitch some designs from it!   It makes me want to order more French stitching books (why are there so few published here in the US?) and also pull out a redwork design to stitch...

Emotional Geology

I posted this review of a book I just finished on my book blog today, but I thought I would also post it here as well.  I know there are some readers out there, and you might be interested in this book as the protagonist is a textile artist--something you don't often see. 

Imagine living here.  Linda Gillard's novel, Emotional Geology published by Transita Publishing, is set partially on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, though most of the story takes place in a remote island community called Uist in the Outer Hebrides Islands (is that Hebrides...Hebridean?  Sorry, I'm a Plains States girl...we don't get this sort of view).  I am sure I have mentioned before that if I could live anywhere it would be somewhere like this.  I'm in love with a place I have never even visited.

Emotional Geology is the perfect comfort read.  It has been frigidly cold (seriously frigid!), there is nothing but dirty, dingy snow to look at outside, and where there is no snow there is a thin layer of dirt covering every surface.  Not terribly pleasant.  For the last few days, however, I have had a wonderful place and inviting story to escape into.  Emotionally damaged Rose Leonard has come to Uist to set her life straight.  She's a single mother of a now grown daughter who spent years in a difficult relationship.  She is struggling to control her mental illness.  The tiny community of Uist takes Rose in, and there she meets Calum Morrison, a younger man with a few skeletons in the closet of his own.  Fairly seamlessly the story goes from the present to moments in Rose's past until we understand exactly why she ended up the way she did.  Eventually Rose and Calum's stories will meet and cross and come together again in surprising ways.

Aside from the descriptions of the island (Rose's small house is quite near the beach--wouldn't that be heavenly?), Rose happens to be a textile artist, and anything having to do with needlework is of particular interest to me.  When Rose would talk about her work I kept having visions of her making something like what you would see in this magazine--the sort art I only dream of making.  Emotional Geology was a thoroughly readable novel for me.  Once I fell into the story I had to read through to the end as Rose and Calum's stories were so compelling.  As a little side note, I really love the cover design of this book.  It really reflects the feeling of the story.  I have been told, "The cover is a photo of Rannoch Moor on the Scottish mainland, one of the most desolate places in Scotland. The bus from Skye to Glasgow travels across Rannoch Moor and the EG tree is very easy to spot in the landscape."  I have her second novel, A Lifetime Burning, already in the TBR pile.