The Art of Gentle Sewing ....

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of

 high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never

 more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied. 

 ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859

Maybe a little old fashioned ( being 1859 it would be) but the sentiment is there for me, really the part that says  more at home in my own heart when occupied in creativity and stitching! well that is my take on the above anyway, not wanting to offend any woman who thinks it is sexiest it just speaks to me! and you all know by now I love words!
I am feeling really at peace with my stitching and the finishing off of projects is clearing a shelf in my mind that was bothering me some what.

Days when I can be at home all day and not have to do any errands is a great day for me, I love to do an hour house work and then light the fire and sit stitching, I can do this and think of new ideas and always have a notebook at the ready to jot down my thoughts as and when .....

Well apart from busy stitching away with my month of finishing projects that just did not get done by the end of last year, what with Christmas which is madness for weeks it seems ( although I am a huge lover of it believe me) and of course my Mum being so poorly that it has over spilt to this year and I decided not to start anything else until the items that I have been working on are finished! but sitting

in my cosy armchair and stitching and having a warm drink break here and there to catch up on here to answer anyone or indeed on Instagram or Facebook pages and then you see it happens ... temptation! so this week I might have bought a quilt and a sampler... yes it happens!

Firstly let me show you the sampler by an Emma Blythe Allington stitched in 1871 and I just loved it with all the faded colours and it was so reasonable as well.  Its in a very old frame and its dark wood but I am going to paint it with some chalk paint and distress it over the weekend ... It was such a temptation and you can see why?!
Its so beautiful and I will put masking tape around the glass and chalk paint it to make it a little brighter but with distressed darker bits of the original frame .....

Then it was a quilt now you know I collect them and they are all used at different times of the year as
I love to dress all the beds at home but I was being good and not buying anymore until our hopefully we move to our forever house BUT ... this beauty came up and it is stunning it is also reversible and it has paisley fabric so I was undone, totally mesmerised and in love.  It is unusual and rare and it is a washed out baby blue/grey with the rose bud paisley pattern ...

You can see that on one side the diamond is in the paisley fabric and is edged with paisley all the way round and a light blue ribbon and the main part is the blue/grey then turn it over and the diamond is in the blue/grey as is the edging and the main part is in the paisley .... its unique and I could not pass it up at the really reasonable price that I paid for it ..... I showed my husband and he said go for it because we have never seen anything like this before so I pressed the buy button!

So you see although I have not been to a vintage fair I have been vintage goody shopping anyway!  oops!  What do you think Nicki? isn't it a stunner? ( Nicki is of Quilterdown fame) and she always leaves a comment on my Homespun Facebook page ... yes there are comments everywhere for this blog and I like to reply to all so I have to go on the hunt daily around the social media sites!

Well I am looking into some of your suggestions about the Christmas Sampler words and must decide what will fit and what to actually stitch and get it done.  I really need to finish all my works by the end of this month and believe me its creeping up to the end isn't it .. where does time go! its going way way to fast.

So it is away to my stitching and it is the weekend so I will be back here on Monday, I hope you all have a great few days and keep warm in this very frosty weather that the South is experiencing at least ... The garden is very pretty because it is white with frost but it does mean cracking ice daily on the bird bath for their drinks and feeding them lots as they can not dig in the earth at all.

Enjoy your weekend and as always Happy Stitching! XX