Last month I started the latest SAL from Faby Reilly, it’s called the Anthea SAL and it’s a sort of flower calendar, it can be stitched as one big picture or twelve little ones. I decided to do them individually with the idea of making cross-stitch smalls.
Having stitched the first one I was a little undecided how to finish it as it was a little bigger than I anticipated. Del from Curls n Skirls suggested a textile book, a bit like the stitch one I made last year. The idea grew on me and I mulled over various ideas for a couple of weeks. If I just made the twelve squares it would only be six pages long, so I wanted something on the opposite page for each month…
Inspired by the With Thy Needle wordplay designs I decided to do a little wordplay including a seasonal poem or verse, dates and occasions through the month, the latin name of snowdrops together with a single snowdrop from the design. My design method is very traditional – graph paper and bluetack!!
I quite enjoy playing with words like this – I did a big family one a couple of years after we got married, the only difficulty I find is I find it easier to stitch the words as I would write them – and if you turn the cross-stitch round you tend to do the cross-stitches in the opposite direction!!
The poem is one I found years ago, unfortunately I have no idea who it is by…
As morning awakes in the still grey sky
And a scamper of snowflakes rise up on the wind
Spring warmth reaches out and touches the earth
As snowdrop by snowdrop the winter ends
I had to include Helen’s Passing Out parade – here’s me in my proud mum moment, she’s now a qualified nurse in the army…
I had a bit of space left over so I included a flower from our garden and a visitor to the bird feeders in our garden in January, hence mahonia and nuthatch. I also discovered that the first full moon of the year is called a wolf moon!
I used the same colours for both the linen and the floss, it looks a bit darker but that’s just indoor lighting! The running stitch round the edge just helps me stay within the size I wanted, I haven’t decided if it will stay or not.
I’m already about three quarters of the way through February’s design, I’m just doing the back-stitching and then all the embellishments and fancy stitches. Then I need to think about February’s wordplay.
thecraftycreek 