IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME

Thank you to those who have contacted me re my absence,  first it was computer problems I don't find the I pad works well for blogging, , winter and I seems to live were the warmth is, and time slips by with plenty of procrastinating too!  I know excuses, excuses!!

But I have been stitching and have just completed a project that has been in the planning for about a year. It started under the title of the Daisy Chain Project but when I learnt that this years Taranaki-Mamatatu-Wanganui Regional Exhibition  theme was "Earth Sea and Sky"my project grew from one item to three.  Three notebook etuis, small in size, intended to be suitable to take with one in a handbag or when traveling, closed they are each 9.5 cm by 7cm and each tells part of my story, the exhibition opened last Saturday so I can now share with you .
 I have named my pieces-

  "My Favourite things from Earth, Sea and Sky"

Earth........

 "Daisies, ye flowers of lowly birth, embroiderers of the carpet earth."   this quote from a poem by John Clare (1793-1864) I have used  many times with embroidered pieces and it was the inspiration for my piece, along with memories of a cloth my grandmother Caroline Haworth (1873-1949) had stitched.  Caroline won prizes for her embroidery as a child, and four generations of needlewomen followed her.

I'm not sure when she embroidered the cloth, the linen quality looks pre-war, and my sister now has it. The design does have four crinoline ladies sitting in the daisies. not shown in the photo and a plain crocheted edge unlike most of her other cloths which had quite fancy edging, I think the plain edge really suits this piece the border is so rich in stitching.

 

The cover of my etui has the daisies on both the front and the back stitched in a similar style to the border on the cloth,  and opens to show  the daisy flowers in my  style of embroidery, 

then opens out fully when in use, a pocket on the left holds a packet of needles and the scissor pocket is on the right. and I have stitch the quote across the top above the flannel for pins and needles.

I have uploaded photos of I think this will get the second etui but will keep them for my posting as this will become photo heavy if I continue.   part 2 coming soon