I’m stitching the Anthea Calendar this year, it’s a stitch-a-long by Faby Reilly. Each month we get a design which includes a seasonal flower, I’ve decided to double my workload by making it into a textile book with a facing page of wordplay including memorable dates, seasonal verse, and birds and flowers from our garden.
This was January’s design..
This morning I finally finished February, just in time for March’s design to come out on Tuesday.
I finished the main square a couple of weeks ago. It’s based on a design by Faby called winter blooms and it’s the only one apparently which isn’t actually seasonal, it’s more about the colour scheme. It’s meant to be white lilies and also calla lilies, I decided they could be chionodoxa, which are little six petalled flowers, flowering late winter, mainly blue but also available in a pinky – white. To make this stretch of artistic licence a little more plausible I left off the yellow spathe of the calla lily!
It was Wednesday evening when I finally got round to getting out my graph paper to work out the wordplay. I had just about planned it when I received the phone call about my mum…I’m a great believer in fate, the late start meant I could include my mum in the design.
I’m trying to use the same colours as the design and incorporate elements into the wordplay, February’s were pretty light colours which wouldn’t have shown up in back-stitch or even particularly with cross-stitch letters. I recently bought some new colours of permin linen and one of them was this lovely medium teal blue, it was perfect.
Earlier in the month I visited the Kelpies with my friends Kirsteen and Ian, the verse at the top is one which is engraaved in stone around the Kelpies, it’s from a poem by Jim Carruth, this is just a part of the full poem
‘Echo the great beasts that work among us
unbridled in this kingdom between canal and firth
here to harness the river and carry each weary traveller
Bow down your strong heads to taste the water
Stretch up your long necks to face the sun’
I also traveled on the iconic Settle to Carlisle railway with my friend Yvonne, I’d got two free tickets to go anywhere on the Northern Rail network, as compensation for when I was stranded for five hours on a train! I looked to see what the furthest stations were and Carlisle was one of them. The Settle to Carlisle railway goes through some amazing countryside and over the famous Ribblehead Viaduct, the line was meant to be closed in the 1960’s with all the Beeching cuts but there was a huge campaign to keep it open. The weather wasn’t amazing but we had a great day out. The photos were taken with my mobile from a moving train, hence the fuzzy bits!
It was also Shrove Tuesday in February, so we had our traditional pancakes with lemon and sugar. We have two pairs of bullfinches regularly visiting our bird feeders at the moment, they are stunning birds with coral pink breasts and slate grey heads. The hellebores are our main flower in the garden in February – I have quite a few!
We find out of Tuesday what March’s flower will be and then I need to start thinking about the wordplay!
I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.
thecraftycreek 
VERY PRETTY
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What a wonderful idea. I love it x
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Not being a pastel person I can’t comment much on colours, but the overall design of both these pages is lovely, and so appropriate for the month. xx As always, your colourful garden flowers are favourites, but I really envy your “ticket to ride❣️”
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Your stitching diary of this year is lovely. What a great way to record your memories and garden blooms. The train trip sounds like fun too.
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Such a lovely posting ~
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Lovely idea making it a diary year book.
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This is such a fabulous idea, Margaret! Your book will be absolutely stunning. You’re so talented!!! I really love that you were able to include your mum on the February page too!
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Your stitching diary will be a treasured memory cue in the years to come, and those helibores are so lovely this year!
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Interesting that you included the 26th on your wordplay as that is my birthday. I love what you are doing with that monthly book. Very pretty. The Kelpies are beautiful. What a wonderful place to visit.
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Your cross stitching is so pretty! The flowers brought a smile to my face, so lovely. Still winter here.
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Beautiful stitching, and love your word play piece! Great work!
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Recently found your page and today sent for the monthly patterns. Will be watching your blog for more info on your book as would love to do this. Just need ideas for words. Am off to Pinterest for more ideas maybe. Thanks
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Love Pinterest! Have a look at With Thy Needle Wordplay 🙂
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This is such a wonderful stitched diary… a beautiful memory log.
So pretty…. and I love the beads you added!
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You were fortunate indeed to be able to include your mother’s passing date in your wordplay for the month of February. I love the line from the poem too. As usual, beautiful work. 🙂
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Thanks Sue
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Hello Margaret, I love this project, your stitching is so inspirational. I’ve been looking at sampler charts because that’s my thing in cross stitch but you’ve made me think with this project. I love that it will be turned into a book full of memories. I can’t wait to see the other blocks. Regards Mandy xx
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So pleased you enjoyed the wonderful train trip, we are rail fans here in New Zealand too. Wonderful to see the Kelpies, looks like they are covered in mist.
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Oh wow, I love the photo of those incredible horse heads rising in the mist. Such a spectacular sight! Love your February flowers. How wonderful to receive a free train trip to wherever. It sounds as if you had a fun trip.
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Sorry to bother you again but can’t find another way for getting ahold of you. Am trying to figure out how big to cut my pages for the book like yours. Could you help?
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Hi Margie, no trouble, I’m cutting my pages to about 7″, the actual design on 32 count comes out just over 4″, so I’ve got a bit of leeway whilst I decide how big a margin to have.
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This is such a pretty project to begin with but I love the fact that you are personalising it with a diary of your year too. It makes it a real keepsake.
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