This is the design on Tam's bag in its entirety. I enjoyed choosing the embroidery silks in complementary colours. This was purchased from Sew Enchanting (Princetown, Dartmoor).
I will add a photo of Tam's "Alchemy" present for Jon later on, when he's unwrapped it.
Meanwhile, having gone to bed early, full of cold - what a time for a cold to hit me, Christmas Day! - I didn't sleep well. I was too hot. We are all going out for a short walk later on to blow the cobwebs away and give our livers some exercise after firstly Champagne in the morning as we unwrapped our gifts, and then red wine with the roast beef. We were dancing round the kitchen to old Tamla Motown songs, which Rosie loved (the dancing as much as the music). That helped keep the tears at bay.
I had lovely thoughtful gifts - the girls collaborated and got me a difficult floral 1,000 piece jigsaw and one of those roll-up mats to keep the cats off it!! A little book of local Welsh walks, a book about the cooking family in Azerbaijan whose videos I follow on Youtube, and books from my dear friend G, who started off as a penpal when I was about 19 years old - a fair few years ago now! (53) I am wearing my new White Company socks (SO pretty and comfy) and have the widest, warmest scarf to snuggle under when it is bitter outside.
This morning, as I was down early (because of being in bed early), I decided to do some research into Keith's genetic link to the Pankhursts. I have the names, but can I find them in the records? Not much so far. The obvious marriage with Goulden, but actual birthplace for Sophia Jane Craine's father (William) - not so easy, but at least I have a year now. Then there's the cousin who's a Folkloreist and is equally wriggly to tie down!
Outside it is cold and foggy (low cloud foggy). A little blue sky is just peeping through though, so I'll get the venison casserole in the slow cooker and we can leave it to do its thing whilst we go for a walk.
Hoping everyone has had a lovely Christmas.
What a shame to go down with a cold right now, I hope it clears soon. It sounds as though everyone is being supportive and that you will have good memories of this Christmas especially little Rosie's smile. Your embroidery is very impressive, gifts made with love are the best followed by thoughtful gifts. Hope the weather improved for you as it did here.
ReplyDeleteMine didn't stay long but Christmas Day was the worse day - streaming nose - and on Boxing Day I was very tired and had to go to bed where I slept deeply for an hour and a half.
DeleteI can only do basic embroidery, none of the fancy-pants stitches, although I should really push myself a bit harder to learn. I used to get a lovely Australian embroidery magazine (Inspirations?) and still have those upstairs.
We have had a lovely Christmas spending it with daughter and family. They have given us a year's membership to Chatsworth, so have already booked our first visit for Sunday. Granddaughter asked for and received an electric sewing machine, very hi-tech and Granny spent a few hours struggling to thread it and work out the bobbin, I shall have to look at some You Tube videos, its more complicated than mine! Hugs Xx
ReplyDeleteWhat a good present. Tam, Gabby and I went to Chatsworth and really loved it there. I still have my Chatsworth wallpaper teatowel!
DeleteWell done with sorting out your grand-daughter's new sewing machine. What would we do without Youtube?
The embroidery on both those bags is beautifully done. The designs would look beautiful on a pair of throw pillows too.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes, it would look lovely on cushions too. No reason I couldn't get a couple more tote bag and repurpose them.
Deleteoh bother going down with a cold! Hope it will be cleared by New Year for you.
ReplyDeletenot that it would help with research, but Emmeline Pankhurst and other notable suffragettes visited St Davids Cathedral {it's on their website}
Tam's bag is beautifully embroidered. I wonder if I could manage some?
The cold has cleared but I could have done without it! Interesting about Emmeline Pankhurst visiting St Davids. I am still tracing Keith's relation backwards.
DeleteIt would be lovely to see how you get on with embroidering. You don't have to do the miniscule chain stitch I opted for, and it would be very satisfying I'm sure.
Morning BB, hope you slept well and are feeling a bit better. Murky is a very good description, a favourite poet describes it as mist chloroforming the fields. I deliberately had a busy out and about day on Christmas Day. I walked to church in the morning, then to the pub with friends and in the afternoon I had a walk by myself. I stopped at the little shepherds church on the way home and sang carols very loudly. Home to light the fire and have a cup of tea and mince pie with S while we exchanged books bought from the Petworth bookshop, the Arundel bookshop and of course my secondhand bookshop. S had prepared our roast lamb and we opened a bottle of red wine and relaxed. Yesterday I stayed home all day and hooray I have finished my all over fair isle vest!
ReplyDeleteI started weaving in all the ends yesterday morning and soaked and blocked it and it is now drying flat on the kitchen floor. I just tried it on and it fits perfectly - I am so happy with it. I bought the wool from a real shop in July, started it during the Olympics, didn’t like my colour choices (lime green, yellow and orange with moor grass and eeskit) and thought I was knitting the wrong size, so I rejigged the colours using only four colours in the end (moor grass, a stormy blue grey, undyed eeskit and pumpkin orange) and knitted the smaller size 2 and it is perfect. So now it is back to sewing. I have a canvaswork embroidery to finish, I will add some more tablecloth to my embroidered cup of snowdrops on antique linen (the design bought from Caroline Zoob at a Christmas brocante held at Parham in 2019) and coral red pj bottoms to sew together and a length of bias binding to make for the drawstring and there’s always fleece to spin …. And so the wheel turns. Thinking of you and hoping all is well. Sarah x
Friday night's sleep was very late in arriving - still awake at 1.30 a.m.! It sounds like you had a pleasing Christmas. I have not had the energy to do a bracing walk and tbh, we have been in thick fog here for days, and have woken up to it again today. Glad your Fair Isle vest is finished and fits perfectly. Some memories tied into that. My memories with the sewn bags I made, are Outlander ones! I've just checked out Caroline Zoob and have found an Ivy Wreath Snowberry pattern to download. I will print that off when Rosie is finally awake. We had a REALLY bad time trying to get her down last night - she's cutting another tooth and was also over-tired. She was still awake and screaming at 10.30p.m. poor little soul.
DeleteMaking crafts of various descriptions is always so satisfying. Must get back to my spinning in 2025.