It’s happy dance time! Yesterday I finished my Anthea Book of Days and I’m very happy with it!
I started this project last January when Faby Reilly started her Anthea Calendar stitch-a-long, each month she released a beautiful cross-stitch of a seasonal flower. I decided to make mine into a book rather than a big picture or twelve little ones.
A book of twelve designs would be a bit thin I thought, so I decided to make a wordplay for each month. The idea was that it would include events that happened in the month – we had a wedding and a big holiday to include – flowers and birds in my garden, a suitable poem or piece of prose…then covid struck!
Events went out of the window and we stayed at home…and I sewed! I tried hard not to make it a covid diary, but when I was short of things to embroider as we weren’t ‘doing’ anything, I started to stitch what the month meant to me instead. Quotes became more poignant as my mother died and then my mother-in-law. A visit to the hairdressers became an event! I have just written in a notebook to tuck in the back sleeve about each month and what I included, in 20 years time will we remember who Captain Tom was? He became a national treasure after raising £34 million for the NHS by walking 100 laps round his garden for his 100th birthday, buoying up the countries spirits in a difficult time. He sadly died this week, he was an inspiration to us all.
Having stitched all my pages, I stitched them altogether and created a front and back page. I decided on a name for my book, Anthea means flower or blossom in Greek, a book of days journal is a record of the minutiae of life…
I learned a way of binding pages together…
…and I made a cover for my book…
So it is finished, fourteen months work, I hope you like it as much as I do…
I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts on Sunday for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for lots of stitched inspiration.
thecraftycreek 
I love this project.
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What an absolute masterpiece you’ve created there, Margaret !!!! It’s simply stunning ❤️
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A wonderful project to get out and leaf through and a reminder of this bizarre year – you couldn’t really not make reference to some of those events in any record of 2020 could you? A real heirloom.piece too.
RIP Captain Sir Tom – he was a beacon of light in a dark time.
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Love! 🙂
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This is gorgeous!! The whole thing. I especially love how you made each month special by journaling.
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Absolutely wonderful, I’m in awe
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Like the rest of those posting above, I love this piece! But my favorite part is how you made something uniquely and imaginatively different with your stitching projects. I’m sure this will be inspirational for others to ‘craft outside the box’. For some, it can be very difficult to find something else to do with their cross stitch projects besides frame them for the wall or make a pillow. This brings an ‘old’ needlework craft into the present with plenty of intriguing possibilities – thank you for sharing your creative talents with us all.
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Thanks for your kind comment, having run out of wall space I had to start thinking outside the box 🙂
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It’s so charming. Great job! Happy dancing with you 🙂
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I am a novice needleworker, but avid and experienced gardener and this work of art just delights me. Thank you for sharing such poignant beauty with a fan from Pennsylvania, USA
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This is a fabulous example of what ability and imagination can produce. (Don’t you DARE enter it into my local show!! You’d have Best in Category AND Best in Show — deservedly, too.)
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A really wonderful way to remember some very dark times. Glorious work, Margaret! It will grow in value as the years pass.
About Captain Sir Tom. Oh, yes, we heard about him over here, and admired him tremendously! I was sooo sorry to read of his passing. A true and gallant hero.
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What a beautiful project. It makes me want to join in and do one also.
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Thank you, the pattern is still available 🙂
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A wonderful project. I was aghast in reading the loss of your mother and MIL!! My heart aches for you. I’m a new follower so am a bit behind in your story, but sending hugs and prayers. Your book is wonderful, a very beautiful keepsake. It’s been a difficult year for so many. Stay safe, stay healthy. :o)
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Thanks for your lovely comment, as you say it was a rubbish year for so many people even without covid, we lost three parents and a dog in 12 months, so covid was the icing on the cake really, but stitching kept me sane 🙂
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What a coup!
A memory book in pictures, words and thread! A trifecta.
I’m in awe, Margaret…
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I love everything about this! I can think of several ways to apply this concept…maybe one day I can do this for a grand child’s first year.
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Not finished!! Thank you for the inspiration, Margaret, your creativity with stitchery takes it to a whole new level.
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A book for the first year of a grandchild is a lovely idea.
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Wow Margaret, this is just lovely. I am in awe of the book you made, learning how to construct it, then making a gorgeous heirloom.
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Oh! It is completely fabulous! I love that you put all the ‘pages’ into a book form!
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That is AMAZING! So much more impressive than another framed piece (though I’m sure those are lovely). And the finishing is perfect. Congratulations.
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I’ve run out of wall space too so I’m trying to think of other options instead of framing 🙂
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What a year it has been! Such a clever idea to turn this into a book, it will become a family heirloom I’m sure!
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What an amazing project and heartfelt keepsake you created with your thoughts words and stitching. The binding on your is a true work of art!
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Your book is beautiful, love it! Was so sad to hear about Sir Tom’s passing.
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It was very sad to hear about Captain Tom, though he must have had an amazing final year!
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What a really lovely little book of days! It’s a treasure.
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Oh I am so glad that I saw this post. I have been watching you work on this book all along and it is just so beautiful.
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Thanks Cathie, I’m really pleased with it
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Such a wonderful achievement and adding the extra pages makes it uniquely yours. Your lovely little book is a time capsule featuring good times, memories of those no longer here and how we all lived through the pandemic.
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Thanks Jenny, it does make a lovely record of the year, poignant though it is in places.
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Margaret, I am in awe of your work, your extra pages and then your bookmaking. You have made a treasure which I hope will be kept and honoured for generations in your family.
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Thank you, hopefully it will be something to look at and remember a very strange year!
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