Autumn is quietly arriving ....

Delicious Autumn! my very soul is

wedded to it, and if I were a bird I

would fly about the earth seeking the 

successive Autumns.

George Elliot

This morning when I went out to feed the birds and squirrel it was different, there was a slight dampness in the air that is not there during the Summer months, the dew on the grass, the stripey spiders with their webs, that only appear this time of year and are gone by November.  Autumn is quietly arriving.  I am watching the pears and think this weekend will be the time to pick them in, they are conference pears and the tree is very old.  It was planted before the war but still bears beautiful fruit yearly.  I am feeling like the squirrel that says time to fill the larder for the winter

ahead.  I know it sounds strange but Autumn is actually my favourite time of year ( although as I said before I love all the seasons and embrace them whole heartly) there is something about it.  I really enjoy pumpkin and apple soup and pumpkin muffins and along with apple crumbles with cinnamon I am a happy person.

Stitching this time of year is so good, we still have lighter days at this point and walking through the forest with the leaves crunching under your feet and seeing so many beautiful sights to sketch and stitch.  I am not a sun bathing junkie you see, I can not sit still long enough! .. If I could lay there with my eyes closed on a sunbed and still stitch then possibly it would appeal more to me...

With each season brings a beauty that is different to the last one and with Autumn it is the colours and trees for me, also the flowers of Autumn and berries.  The squirrels collecting nuts and I think I have said before when I go walking I collect fallen acorns for the squirrels  ( they have the nut and I have the cups if they are tiny enough.)  When I was in America last year in the Fall, I collected leaves of different colours and varieties, especially some maples and I pressed them in a journal going around America.  They came back with me and they are just beautiful and still full of colour. To study a maple leaf with its intricate lines up close is really something else.

I am pleased to announce that I am nearly finished with the lighthouse just a few more bits to do but I wanted to put it to one side for a few days to not look at it and then go back with fresh eyes to see what I think needs doing to finish ( let your work speak for its self .. my motto to live by) so I have started in earnest on my Autumnal leaf picture .. its not just leaves but they feature.  I can not think of a better time to have started it in earnest than now.

Then I am going to start some personal stitching of mine, which of course because it is for me and not publication I can show you every step of the way which will be lovely.  I want to start on some of those beautiful quilt pieces and get those framed.

My work is just one offs I do not replicate at all so people who buy one of my samplers know that that is it, I can not and will not start a production line it would bore me and I think then it would be just like a sweat shop stitch house .... I love unique and individual.  It has always been my way and I saw a photo once of some little girls all in pink tutu's  all in a line holding on to the ballet bar, then at the end was a little girl hanging upside down from it .... the caption 'dare to be different' and that has been me all of my life and indeed me when I was that age at ballet classes, we all knew then I was never going to be a Prima Ballerina!!  I do not follow the pack and my now husband said its one of the main reason he fell in love with me .. my stubbornness to be different.

I will be making some samplers to sell and all will have a little envelope on the back and in there will be details of the fabrics and buttons used.  Once made there is only one.   I do make Wedding and Baby samplers but they are all different and I can make say a lighthouse picture again but it will

never be the same ( for a start how many vintage whale buttons are there out there!)  I have made for myself and others Hare samplers but again none are the same at all...  Design and fabrics are all different and that is the unique in me ... mass produced does not feed the soul.

My tiny silver rabbit pin cushion .. I have some tiny appliqué pins in it now for show but I feel it is too delicate for everyday use so she sits on my sewing table for me to look at and admire ... So I am off to do just that - and work of course!

Well I have rambled enough today so I will leave you now and get to work on my stitching and other bits that need to be sorted in my stitchery room.  I keep thinking of when we move and I can take small workshops and meet some of you personally ... that will be fabulous and fun.

Happy Stitching! XX