As you can see I have not managed to complete my "February" sampler in the month of February. Can I finish it before winter ends? Spring officially begins in two weeks, and I have lots of stitching left to do on this including a nice solid stretch of white/snow under the house. I am enjoying it but I admit my enthusiasm for working on a winter sampler is lagging as I am so ready for spring.
So, along those lines I've been working on my little bee skep this afternoon. I still need to add my initials and date to the back (which is the bottom square with the bee in the middle), but as I am planning on stitching those over one thread I'll save that for later. I won't get it assembled this weekend, but hopefully this one will be done by the first day of spring. Since I enjoyed finishing my last project as a mattress pincushion, I plan on doing the same for this one, and I have a few changes to make in the actual construction, which I hope will help it look even better than my first attempt.
And some you might recall my "Mystery Sampler"? It's been so long since I've shared any progress on it (as I've not pulled it out even once this year, there hasn't actually been any progress!), but I am ready to get back to it. Lots of green and vines and birds, so that should help get me in the spirit. I'll try and ignore the fact that we've an 80% chance of snow for the next couple of days. This late in the season it never lasts long, but it can create a nuisance. The greener the sampler, the better, I say. My afternoon has been filled with stitching and watching more episodes of season eight of MI-5, which is why I have no bookish news to share with you. Maybe you'd like to see the books I received for my birthday? Needlework books that are lovely and came as a nice surprise.
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!