The State of the Cross-Stitch, and Some Other Things on a Reflective October Afternoon

"Samplings V" by Ellen Chester, one of her five-chart "Quaker Samplings" series, here in Gentle Art's "French Lilac" thread on coffee-dyed Edinburgh linen.  I gave it a bit of a steam-press after finishing, but clearly it needs a bit more!  A very enjoyable chart to work.

I've pretty much finished, bar the backstitches, the lower part of the "window" in the "Japanese View" cross-stitch, and am doing the second of the three swallows as a bit of light relief.  I'd forgotten, in my fascination with samplers, how easy it is to lose one's way in the painterly kind of chart.  But it's really starting to come together now, I'm happy to find.  The original has the landscape part in half-cross, but I like the more solid look of full crosses, so am doing it that way.  I think I will go back with a mid-purple shade and soften the line at the top of that hill on the far right, so that it's more like the other hills ....

I'd had Maggie Lane's Growing Older with Jane Austen on my wish list for quite a few years now, but for some reason all of the used-book sellers have been charging nearly three figures for it, and so when not long ago I saw a copy for only slightly more than its original price I did not wait for some kind gift-giver but bought it immediately myself.  It is certainly worth the wait, though, as it is well-written and insightful, on a subject that does not usually feature much in literary criticism, but clearly was important to Austen, both simply as a means of delineating a particular character and, perhaps as she grew older herself, a way of pointing out the effects of one's relative age on a person's -- more often than not a woman's -- place in her family and social circle and in the society of the time.

After the thorough treat of being able to compare in person every single color of Kona Cotton and Bella Solids at a new-to-me fabric store, I came home with a not-quite navy blue solid to surround my six mini quilts, so have pieced together both a backing and batting -- have been thinking of calling this "No Scrap Left Behind"! -- and am pondering how best to quilt it. 

Comments

[dawninnl]

I love your Japanese View. It reminds me of things I saw in old Chinese houses. I'm looking forward to seeing the completed piece.
The blue you bought for your mini quilts, I think we'd call royal blue.It sets off your scrappy quilts very well.

[Carol Vargo]

Have you read The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow?