Grace and Sovereignty

Grace and Sovereignty...

Sounds like a pretty deep and ponderous post, yeah?

Well, it's not..

"Grace" is Grace Bridges, a piece I stitched some time ago, but she is finally framed and home. (Not on the wall yet...give me a few years.)

The design is by Stacy Nash and was stitched on 40-Count "Boardwalk" linen by Colour and Cotton, using the mostly called-for DMC flosses.  Many liberties were taken with the original design to accommodate my OCD.

(Marly (Samplers and Santas) would be so very proud.)

If the frame looks vaguely familiar, it is. 

This was the second piece I took to a local artist for framing, the first being Noel Sampler by With Thy Needle and Thread.

(Did I share the framed finish of that or not? I can't seem to find it in older posts. In any event, here it is:)

As you can see, they are the exactly same frame.

This was completely unintentional on both my and the framer's part.

If nothing else, I guess I am consistent.

(I prefer "consistent" to unimaginative.)

And Sovereignty...

Sovereignty is the horse that won this year's Kentucky Derby.

For many (many) years, our neighbors have hosted a Kentucky Derby party.

(I know I've posted about at least one of them before, but the posts don't show in the searches as I apparently wasn't using labels back then.)

It's been a few years since I've actually gone to one of the parties, but this year I broke hermitage and went.

Each year they do it up better.

There are mint juleps, horse betting (and other forms of gambling - scratch offs, pull tabs, bingo -all with a horsey theme), and an amazing spread of food.

This year, the track was a muddy mess, and I was grateful none of the horses were injured.

The horse, Journalism, was favored to win but (ironically??), Sovereignty beat out Journalism, and Baeza came in third. 

Although I've been a bit out of the derby loop for a while, I actually did well in the betting - winning the first place ("win") pool, the third place ("show") pool, and even the trifecta pool.

Yeeesss!!

Sometimes walking amongst the living isn't so very awful.

Lucy Nowlen and Robin's Rules of Wonky...

 After many years of agonizingly overthinking debating linen choices, I finally started - and finished - stitching "Lucy Nowlen."  It is an antique reproduction mourning sampler by Pineberry Lane.

{This is NOT where it will hang. It will be properly pressed and framed...eventually.  I simply tacked it here in order to be able to photograph it without attempting a ladder accident shoot.}

Most traditional mourning samplers have motifs typical of the era - tombstones, angels, willows, urns, etc.  Lucy's, however, is simply verses from an old hymn which was often sung at children's funerals.  The verses - or portions of them - also appeared on tombstones during the early to mid-19th century.

The hymn is attributed to Joel A. Knight and was published in a book of hymns in 1806.

My photos are looking very washed out...In person, the colors are somewhere in between the original and the model photo.  (I did use the called-for floss.)

Nothing is actually known about Lucy.  We can presume, however, that she was a child from the fact that the hymn was a children's song, and that she died prior to 1848 when the sampler was stitched (or finished).  It is also likely that the original sampler was stitched by a family member (I'm thinking a sister?) given the initials 'M.N." on the right side of the sampler.

I stitched mine on 36 count "Wren" by Picture this Plus.  It is worked in a variety of stitches: Algerian eyelet stitches, long-arm cross stitches, and regular cross stiches over 3, over 2, and over 1...a great MANY over 1 (all of the lower case letters from the second verse on are over 1...in addition to some in the first verse as well.

There's your history lesson....Now for Robin's Rules of Wonky....

(Not to be confused with Robert's Rules of Order....

Trust me...you don't want to confuse ANYTHING with that.  As a former elected parliamentarian, I can attest to the tediousness of Robert's Rules of Order.

For those of you lucky enough to never have had to endure membership in a society or organization requiring such antiquated rules of procedure and a parliamentarian to adjudicate the orderly conduct of meetings and business, here's a definition:

parliamentarian

ˌpär-lə-ˌmen-ˈter-ē-ən

NOUN

1. an adherent of the parliament in opposition to the king during the English Civil War
2. an expert in the rules and usages of a deliberative assembly (such as a parliament)
3. a member of a parliament

 

{Hint: I was NOT involved in the English Civil War, nor am I, nor ever was I, a member of a parliament.}

And, yes, yes I do still have my worn copy of Robert's Rules of Order....someplace.)

There's your arcane trivia - and completely uncalled-for digression - for the day.

Anyhow...back to my rules of wonky.

Some of you may remember the battle between my OCD and my fondness for wonkiness while stitching my last large piece ("Grace Bridges" by Stacy Nash).  I ended up spending a great deal of time and energy correcting alphabets, adjusting spaces to suit my sense of symmetry, etc.

So...you may wonder why I would not have done the same with this piece given the numerous instances of wonkiness. The same letters are stitched differently in different words and sometimes in the same word, words in the same line of verse are stitched higher or lower than other words in the line, missed stitches in certain letters, incongruent punctuation, etc.  Most obvious of all are the errors in numbering the verses:  "2rd" (vs. "2nd") and "3th" (vs. "3rd").

And absolutely no tug of war with my OCD...because this is a reproduction of an actual antique sampler versus a sampler that was simply designed to look old.

This is the way that the stitcher - whoever she/he was - stitched it originally 176 years ago, and Wendy (a/k/a Pineberry Lane) took great pains to dissect the original and chart it exactly as it had been stitched so long ago.

I felt obliged to honor both Lucy and the stitcher of her humble sampler by following her needle paths exactly - or at least to the best of my ability.

Not that you asked...but there you have it.  My rules of wonky.

The Recalcitrant Grace Bridges

 Long ago, but not so very far away, 11-year old Grace Bridges was newly arrived at Willow Winds House.  She preferred to spend her days roaming the sun-dappled meadows gathering wildflowers and following the creek that meandered through the forest behind the house.

Her au pair, Miss Crowe, however, preferred that Miss Grace spend a little more time with her lessons and a great deal more attention to her stitches.

Even on days when the fog and rain closed in on Willow Winds House so oppressively that Grace could not escape the rambling yellowstone house, Grace fidgeted in her chair and struggled to count her stitches properly.  Her mind wandered to the forgotten garden with its vines tumbling over the old shed she was told to stay away from.... It wandered to the neglected fountain that sat decaying at the end of the garden path.... It wandered to the little cove where the creek spilled into the sea....  It wandered to anywhere but the needlework in her lap.

So, it was only after months of tedious frustration on both Miss Crowe's and little Grace's parts that Grace finally finished her first sampler....

Ok...so absolutely none of that is true; but, like Grace's, my mind is wandering today too.

Anyway...  I finally finished stitching Grace Bridges by Stacy Nash.  It was a stitch-along I participated in.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that stitching this piece caused a powerful struggle between my penchant for primitive wonkiness and imperfection and my tendency for bouts of OCD.  On days that my OCD was in control, complex mathematical computations were done and adjustments to spacing and design made. 

{Pattern design blurred to protect copyright of the designer, but you can see my color-coded math revision notes.}

On other days, wonky won out.

Since this was not an actual reproduction of an antique sampler (at least not that I know of), I felt entitled to make adjustments that would somewhat soothe the OCD ogre.  (Personally, I don't think even little Grace would have been that careless.  😉)

Grace Bridges Sampler stitched on 40 count "Boardwalk" by Colour and Cotton using (mostly) called-for DMC flosses.

* * * * * * *

Now Grace and I are off to look for toads along the creek.

All Hallow's Eve Eve

{"All Hallow's Eve" - design by Dulaney Woods Treasures}

Once again, it's been too long between posts.

My back and neck issues are generally managed (by oral medications and bi-weekly injections, physical therapy and chiropractic care) to a nagging, aching, level with only occasional bouts of stabbing debilitating pain.  In the past month or so, the state of pain has been inverted and the nagging, aching, level would be welcome.  At least I would get a few hours sleep from time to time.

Add to the pain and sleep deprivation a garage that has decided to start collapsing, and on-going stressors I prefer not to breathe life into by reducing to writing, I am struggling.

But, all that said, it's the eve before Halloween and I promised myself I would get a post done to wish those who have brought so much joy and comfort to my world a bewitching Halloween-tide.

I haven't much in the way of news...and my days are even more mundane than typical.

Each day starts the same...with my special "brew:"

\

And if I've managed to bake, a treat...

{Butter pecan scone with penuche glaze}

The colors in the above photo (taken less than a week ago) are long gone.

Last week we received more rain than I ever recall getting.  In one 36-hr period, we had over 6" and I've heard the totals for the week were somewhere around 11-12."  This, of course, did not help my roof situation. 

Now, it's turned cold.  

It has snowed once, but did not stick.  Tomorrow, however, we are to get several inches...of the staying variety.  My gardens have not been cleaned but there's not much to do for it now.

Stitching has all but slowed to a halt, but I am trying to keep up with the weekly "assignments" for the Grace Bridges stitch-along.

{"Grace Bridges Sampler" by Stacy Nash}

It is a quirky piece: duplicated letters, missing letters, spacing with no rhyme or reason.  Despite my love of "wonky," I seriously battled my OCD in the second and third alphabets and my OCD mostly won out with many corrections. (It's technically not a reproduction so I felt at liberty to make changes.)

The upside: I know my math skills are not completely dormant.

The downside: It is very time-consuming and makes spacing in subsequent lines difficult.

So, I tucked my OCD neatly (very neatly) back in its box and am trying to embrace the quirkiness of little Grace...who I am convinced was a wild child more enamored of roaming the meadows searching for wildflowers and toads than learning her stitches.

And, yes, I continue to read. This is the book I just finished:

Most of you know my affinity to research regarding the Salem witch trials of 1692.  I have a complete library dedicated to books - both fiction and nonfiction - on the subject.  This, however, is one of the most readable sources I've come across.  Yes, there are footnotes (but not too many) and tons of endnotes/sourcenotes in the bibliography, but it still reads almost like a novel.

That's about it.

One would think that, after so many weeks of silence, I'd have something more to write about.

One would think.

Anyways, wishing you all a magical night of bewitchment ahead.