The Drawer of Infinite Possibilties!

I am almost at the point of completing a cross-stitch sampler which I began at least eight years ago, possibly more! This is unlike me, usually I begin something and finish it reasonably quickly but this sampler contains a few other stitches apart from cross-stitch and one is called Queen stitch. I kept looking at it and couldn't work out how it was done,I passed the first area where it appeared, leaving gaps. I did the same with the second area and all the time I was leaving it longer and longer between each stitching session. Last summer I virtually finished the cross-stitch and backstitch then it went away again. After I finished knitting the blanket for my newest grandchild I decided I wanted a change so thought that I'd get out the sampler, crack the mysteries of Queen stitch and get the so-and-so thing finished! What the expression on the lady's face will say when I take it to be framed I dread to think - after eight plus years it's rather the worse for wear.......
Anyway after this triumph I've decided to look in The Drawer and see what else I have that needs finishing and make this the Summer of Finished Projects. Clicking on the images will enlarge them if you want to see them more clearly.



In the past I have had a mild interest in doll's houses mostly because my friend L has a couple of really fantastic ones which she has done a lot of work on over the years. I went to one or two Doll's House events and obviously got carried away one day and bought this kit for making a miniature baby's shawl. The needles are incredibly fine and the things that look like bits of string are actually hanks of wool! And there are two small pieces of fabric - I don't even know what I had in mind for those - a quilt? miniature cushions? Who knows - somehow I think those will be staying in the drawer for a while yet.



I love this design - actually I bought the chart first and then came across the pack with the silks and fabric in. This is a possibility - but it has beads on it and I've never done any beading. On the other hand if I never try I shall never know whether I can do it or not.



I bought this to do for my elder son and his wife, they have lived in Africa and have a lot of African bits and pieces in their home so it would fit in. Could I get it done by Christmas? Of course I could - just don't ask which Christmas:)



Now what are these doing in this drawer - souvenirs from a visit to Florence with my daughter a year or two ago. Postcards from the church of Santa Croce showing the tombs of Galileo and the great Italian composer Rossini. Michelangelo is buried here too. As for the receipts from Prada - my daughter made me go in there! I didn't want to, really I didn't!



Think I must have had my sunglasses on when I bought this fabric. It's aim in life is to become a cushion cover - it can go in the Lancashire house in the conservatory if it ever gets finished.



Oh joy! I still have the instructions and lots of card templates for the patches! Yeeeeah!!!



Now this little chap is finished but didn't get framed. I feel a stocking present for a small grandson coming on......



More cross-stitch, this was definitely bought for me, wolves are my favourite animal.



Hmmm, yes, well! One day I will learn to crochet and then I can make a lovely lacey something with all this cotton yarn.



You mean you thought the drawer must be empty by now? Oh no, there's still....



....the pattern for some knitted cushion covers. Now these are in with a chance! The beaded cross-stitch ornament is pretty and would be good practise for the Celtic Christmas picture.



Well, well, what have we got here? It's the doll's pram quilt I'm making for my daughter - she'll be 29 next week :):):) Perhaps I'd better move the goalposts a bit and say it's for my granddaughter!



And here's a potholder waiting for me to finish quilting it - if I can still remember how.



Probably about time I finished Wastwater off I think, I'd forgotten it existed (the sewing that is, not Wastwater!) but it's rather nice so I might put that near the top of the list. That's a nasty crease down the middle, why on earth did I fold it? It isn't exactly gigantic! Actually I can't help having a horrible feeling that it got left because I made a mistake somewhere.........



Apparently I was intending to make some cards - I used to do a lot of cross-stitch cards and sell them at craft fairs and I could certainly produce one or two for various birthdays - I'd completely forgotten I had these too.



As for these - WHAT was I thinking? Bookmarks, yes I'll make those up but if I have the other two forever more I still shan't be making tiny bows or rose ribbons for doll's houses. If anyone could make use of them I'd be happy to pass them on. If there should be more than one I'll get DH to pull a name out of a hat. I confess I'm not expecting to be overwhelmed with requests:)

So there we are - which shall it be? Wastwater I think, then Dove Cottage. Let's just hope I don't fall off my perch before I get the rest of them finished.

A Suffolk Summer Part Two

This lovely Elizabethan timber framed farmhouse caught my eye as I drove into Brent Eleigh. For some reason it looked vaguely familiar.



This is the reason why! One of my favourite artists is A R Quinton and in the early 1900s he travelled all round England painting local scenes which were published as postcards by the firm of J.Salmon Ltd. I like his work because he paints the kind of scenes that appeal to me and he has left a pictorial record of the England that existed before the advent of the car. The scene that appealed to me obviously appealed to Alfred Quinton as well and the wonderful thing is that apart from the fact that the lane has a modern tarmac surface the scene is virtually unchanged a hundred years later. Alas the lovely working horses and the geese are no longer there but the green is there and even better is what is not there - no modern buildings have appeared.



St Mary's Church is tucked away up a long quiet lane and hidden away behind trees. It is fortunate in having escaped a Victorian 'restoration' and therefore the outside looks now pretty much as it did when it was built around 1400.


Inside it still has the old box pews and in the chancel behind the altar are some rather special medieval wall paintings. They were whitewashed over at the Reformation and rediscovered in 1960 and are among the most important in England.


This is 14th century and was designed as an altarpiece, it depicts the Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and St John standing on either side. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it.



This is a detail from the painting on the south side of the altar and shows the priest who was its donor. This painting is late 13th century. Clicking to enlarge this will make the priest's face very clear - a little window into the past.



The Colmans were Lords of the Manor until the male line died out in 1739.



The classic view of Kersey said to be the prettiest village in Suffolk. It shows the little River Brett flowing across the road and the church at the top of the hill. You may be relieved to know that there are no interior photographs as this was the only church I came cross in Suffolk that was actually locked! Although John Appleby (see Part One) doesn't seem to have visited Brent Eleigh he did go to Kersey and was rather disappointed by it though he did like the church which, unlike me,he did get to see the inside of!


Kersey is a typical linear village laid out mostly along one long main street. This is looking from the watersplash in the opposite direction to the church.



I think this cottage is just beautiful with it's pink walls, thatched roof and pretty cottage garden.


The medieval Bell Inn - it has stood here for 700 years and watched all the joys and sorrows of village life. What stories it must have locked in its memory.



Another of Kersey's beautiful old houses.


I'm rather keen on weather vanes and always photograph them if I see attractive or unusual ones.


A final view of Kersey. These lovely houses are on a lane off the main street at the top of the hill near the church.



Hadleigh is a small Suffolk town with a very long history, it was settled first of all in the 5th and 6th centuries by Angles and Friesians from across the North Sea and a century or two later the Vikings made an appearance and also eventually settled in the area though not before they'd done a little raiding and plundering first! Guthrum, the Viking leader who was defeated in battle by Alfred the Great, was converted to Christianity and became the King of what is now northern and eastern England. He died in Hadleigh and is supposedly buried in the church of St Mary pictured above. The present rather splendid church is 14th century but stands on the site of an older Saxon church which is where Guthrum would have been buried.



The 15th century Guildhall which is now a rather splendid venue for weddings. Hadleigh was another of the places visited by John Appleby, he had tea in a tea shop on the High St - now long gone I imagine. He considered Hadleigh to be 'the dullest place in Suffolk' which is perhaps a little harsh!



Some of the many fine old medieval buildings in Hadleigh.



Suffolk is full of lovely old lanes like this, you can see from the patches of grass growing in the middle of the road that there isn't a lot of traffic along here. Who knows where this leads - perhaps back into the past........

Heritage Crafts

I have always been interested in the old traditional country crafts and am so pleased that there is finally an organization to try and prevent these old skills dying out. It supports the more industrial skills as well including those involved in the steel making and cutlery industries of Sheffield. Could I direct you to a very eloquent post by Leanne at Somerset Seasons, Dorset Days which expresses my feelings about the old crafts but better than I can manage. Here is the Heritage Crafts Association site if you would like to learn more about them. It is so important that we don't lose the knowledge that these craftsmen and women possess or it is gone forever. They are still trying to work out how the people who built Stonehenge moved the blue stones from the Preseli Hills in Wales and the huge sarsen stones from the Marlborough Downs to Wiltshire! It may not have been a making baskets or weaving kind of skill but nevertheless a skill of some kind was involved and it has been lost as have many others.

A Suffolk Summer Part One

I mentioned in a recent post a book I have called Suffolk Summer by John Appleby, he was a member of the USAAF who was stationed at Lavenham in Suffolk and then Thorpe Abbots in Norfolk during WW2. He acquired a bicycle and spent his leaves and days off exploring Suffolk. Quite early on he discovered the art of brass rubbing and from then on he visited as many churches as he could that had brasses worth seeing. Like John Appleby I spend as much time as I can exploring the villages and countryside when I go to Suffolk and since the life and history of the people largely centred around the church I tend to visit a lot of them.


The church in the photograph at the top is St Lawrence, Little Waldingfield which was built in the 14th century. John Appleby came here to do rubbings of the brasses - this one is John Wyncoll, a clothier who died in 1544.


The South Porch with its sundial - it looks very mellow and peaceful in the sunlight.


The Charity Boards on a wall inside the church. Wealthy people often left charitable bequests to assist the poor of their parish, many are still being distributed today. Whether this is the case with the 'Ten Loads of Wood' I don't know, a load of wood would have been very welcome to a poor family in a bitter winter but these days it may have been somehow converted to a cash payment.



This venerable old parish chest is over 700 years old, it dates from about 1300 and would have held the church valuables. There were three locks with each key held by a different person so that there was no danger of anyone making off with the contents.



This is the 14th century church of St Peter, Monks Eleigh, another church built with the wealth that came from wool and the manufacture of cloth. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see the bell which chimes the hours set in a cage on top of the tower.



You never know quite what you are going to come across in old churches, this is the parish bier made by the local carpenter in the late 1500s and used to carry coffins to and from the church. At each end there are two folding handles for the pall bearers to use.


Another unusual item in this church is the alms box fixed to a pillar and dated 1636 - three keyholes again you'll notice. They didn't seem to trust their vicars all that much in those days!


The beautiful stone font dates from the 13th century - I wonder how many babies have been baptized there in the last 800 years? Even in a small village like Monks Eleigh it must number several thousand.



As I walked down the road from the church I saw this charming scene which must be what most people visualize when they think of an English country cottage.



Chelsworth is one of the places that John Appleby mentions in his book, he calls it 'the loveliest village in Suffolk' and I'm inclined to agree with him. All Saints church is 13th century.


This medieval wall-painting of The Last Judgement was discovered in 1849 when the church was being re-decorated. During the Reformation all the brightly painted walls in churches were plastered or painted over and many were destroyed completely. Clicking on the photo will make it possible to see it more clearly.



I had a friendly little companion while looking round Chelsworth church.



One of the lovely cottages in the village, I love all the odd angles of the walls. The jetty ( where the top storey overhangs the lower one) is a sure sign of a medieval building.



Another of Chelsworth's attractive cottages, in June each year the village has a 'Gardens Open' to raise money for the upkeep of the church. There are around 20 gardens to visit and it's well worth going if you are in the area on Sunday June 28th. There's a plant stall and a cake stall, two of the gardens do teas, there are flowers in the church and best of all a chance to get a closer look at all these fabulous old places including the local manor house. I'm rather hoping to go myself this year - depends on my husband's cricket fixtures though!

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Following a recent post by The Weaver of Grass I acquired a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam earlier this week and on Tuesday I sat out in the sunshine to read it.It was translated from the original Persian in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald and became a great favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites without whose interest and support it would probably have sunk without trace. These illustrations from The Rubaiyat are by a wonderful French illustrator called Edmund Dulac who was working in the early to mid 20th century and was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.



Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet,philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who lived between 1048 and 1151. This portrait is in his mausoleum at Nishapur, the town where he was born and lived for most of his life.


I suspect that a great many people know parts of the Rubaiyat without being aware of it. For instance:

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse- and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

" The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: " are also well-known lines from The Rubaiyat. They provided Agatha Christie with the title for one of her Miss Marple stories.



I have always thought that the Rubaiyat was a poem of love and romance - actually it's a bit of a drunken rambling written as Omar Khayyam spends the day in an inn getting progressively more intoxicated and morose as the day goes on! Dulac did a series of beautiful illustrations for the book, however I am not matching them to the lines he wrote them for but to the ones that appeal to me:) My favourite lines are the opening quatrain which The Weaver also quoted:

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.





Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly - and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.




The title of this illustration from the Rubaiyat series is The Sleeve of Night - less colourful but with a tranquil, dreaming quality that I love.



Edmund Dulac illustrated many other fairytales and books including The Arabian Nights and Shakespeare's play The Tempest from which comes this lovely drawing of the sprite Ariel. What I would love now is to discover where there are examples of his original artwork that I could go and see.