Monthly Archives: November 2008

Scarlet Quince’s beautiful patterns

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I guess Scarlet Quince is infectious, because after showing my mother the website where I ordered the “A Mon Seul Desir” pattern, Scarlet Quince, she was sold. She recently renovated her house, and bought some Art Nouveau style bedroom furniture. She already put some old cross stitching works, in the art deco style of the seventies, on the wall, but when she saw the Mucha patterns, she was sold.
She hasn’t cross stitched in a while, because there is no room in the house left where she wanted to hang her works. If you can’t show the works, what fun is it to make them? Now that she has a place to put them, she’s looking forward to making the beautiful Mucha works :D. She ordered the Fruit and Flower set, and the Primrose and Feather set. (Primrose is shown on the left).

A mon seul desir cross stitch preparations 3

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Last thursday I went to the small craft store in town for more stuff I need for the “A mon seul desir”. I went in for fabric (I only knew I wanted 18-count aida, maybe in an off-white color), but of course I left with more.
First the fabric. I needed 18-count aida, at least 110×100 cm. I wanted off-white for the of chance that some fabric would show through. If you use ivory white, it just glares at you, it will be so noticeable. Anyway, off-white was sold out, but the salesman offered me some fabric in a color he called ‘pebble’. It is a light grey color, very beautiful (I will include pics later).
I also needed some needles and a good pair of scissors. The salesman asked me if I wanted plain or gold needles. Gold needles were twice as expensive, but that only came to 34 cents instead of 14 cents, but gold is better. So, three gold needles, size 26 (that was recommended by Scarlet Quince). When he gave me the needles, he asked me if I needed a needle container. He showed me a needle container, with a magnet on the side for needle pick up. It was only 2 euros, so I got that too. He showed me some scissors that were pretty expensive and very good, but mostly for fabric cutting. Since I will only be using it for threads, I got a pair that was a bit cheaper. I also got a small bobbin box for when I travel to my parents or inlaws for the weekend.
That was my big cross stitching shopping spree for this week, now all I need to do is trim the edges of the fabric, finish winding my bobbins and wait for the pattern to arrive… I am excited.

Review: Het Koningsboek by Arnaldur Indridason

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I just finished reading the Dutch translation of the The King’s Book by Arnaldur Indridason, a write from Iceland. The book focusses on the manuscript of the Edda. The story is what I like to call a historical adventure, it takes place in the present day/century but focusses on historical ‘facts’ (like The Da Vinci Code).

The King’s Book is written from the perspective of Valdemar, a young student who moves from Iceland to Kopenhagen in 1955 to study old Icelandic languages. He meets his (Icelandic) professor who came highly recommended. However, he turns out to be a drunk. The professor is passionate about Icelandic manuscripts and believes that they should be, and will be, returned to Iceland one day, where they belong.

Slowly it becomes clear to Valdemar that the professor is in trouble and is searching desperately for the most important manuscript of the Icelandic people, the Codex Regius, the Edda. The Edda is the base of Icelandic identity, and the Codex Regius is the oldest version. The search of the professor is strange however, because the Codex was never lost… or was it? And it turns out not only Valdemar and the professor are looking for the Codex, and the other party does not shun violence.

The King’s Book was a book that I greatly enjoyed reading. I find that the story telling style of Scandinavian writers is different than that of American or British writers, and I like it. A lot of background information is given, though since the book was originally written in Icelandic, it does include a lot of Icelandic hero’s. That does enable the reader to learn about Icelandic history. I for one thing did not know that Iceland only became independant from Denmark in 1944. Some background of the struggle for independance and the pride of the Icelandic people is given in the book.

The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that I could see some of the bad things coming from a mile away, and even though they were logical and necessary for the story, I didn’t like to see bad things happen to the professor and Valdemar, or the manuscript.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes history and suspence, it is a good read and Iceland is a nice subject (instead of the millionth book on Da Vinci or Christianity in this genre).

LibraryThing link

The Lady and the Unicorn: Sense of Taste

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One of the five senses, the sense of taste is displayed on one of the five ‘regular’ Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. The tapestry displays the lady in the center, with on her left one of her maidens. To her right is a unicorn, to her left a lion. Both are holding a coat of arms. The lady is looking at the parrot on her left hand, while taking a sweet offered by her servant. Her pet dog is watching her on her left. The whole scene is surrounded by trees, animals and flowers.

The floral design on the red background is called millefleurs, which means thousand flowers. It is a common style used in tapestries in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, and it helps to unify the six tapestries into one series.

A mon seul desir cross stitch preparations 2

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Organizing threads (200 skeins)They are here! My threads that I ordered through eBay have arrived yesterday, which is rather quick. They were shipped last friday, and arrived on the following wednesday, from the UK.

It are 200 skeins (the first 50 are spread out, the other 150 are still in their bags on the right). I am sorting them, checking them on the order e-mail, the list I made and the list Scarlet Quince sent me. Then I am wrapping one skeins of each on a bobbin. I have two boxes to hold the bobbins, and I have the DMC number stickers to mark them. It is a big job, but I do think it will make everything easier when I start stitching.

Super Mario Cross Stitch week 16

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Epic Mario Cross-Stitch Week 16 (November 23 2008)Another week, and more work on the Super Mario Cross Stitch. I am working hard to get it finished, I hate doing white on white. I finished the white around the “tendo” part of the logo, still working on the “Nin”. I am hoping to have at least the white around the letters done by sunday, but I don’t know if I have the time.

I started using the Super Frame I bought last week, and even though it makes progress slower, the results are neater. The reason that it’s slower is that before I used the frame, I wouldn’t pull my needle to the back. This made things quicker, but not very neat. You only see this up close, so I never had a problem with it, but still, this is better.

The Lady and the Unicorn: The Unicorn tapestries

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As a background to my new stitching project (A Mon Seul Desir) I want to study the background of the tapestries a bit. In this post I will condense a bit of basic information about the Tapestries.

The tapestry series “The Lady and the Unicorn” consists of six tapestries. Five of them depict the senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and sound). The sixth is the final piece (or first), and has the title “A mon seul desir”. This roughly translates to “To my one desire”.

The tapestries were made in the late fifteenth century from designs drawn up in France (Paris). These designs (which are called ‘cartoons’) were used by weavers from Flanders (today Belgium) to weave the six tapestries. The sponsor for this work was Jean Le Viste, whose coat of arms is woven into the tapestries. Jean Le Viste was a powerful nobleman in the court of King Charles VII of France.

The tapestries were rediscovered in 1841, by Prosper Mérimée in the Boussac castle, where they were in bad shape due to storage conditions. In 1882 the tapestries were bought for the Musée National du Moyen Age (National museum for the Middle Ages) in Hotel Cluny in Paris by Edmond Du Sommerard. They have been the property of the museum ever since, and are on display there now.

Found online: Amazing giant ant colony

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Through various weblogs this YouTube video came to me. During a study of ants, researchers pour 10 tons (!) of concrete down an ant hill, then excavate. The resulting structure is amazing. It looks almost alien in nature.

(via)

Quick trip to the stitching store

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My plan was to make a quick trip to both the craft stores in town this morning before I’d have to catch a train. The weather however was not cooperating so when I saw the harsh winds and rain I figured I’d go next week. When I walked to train I was fifteen minutes early so I took a quick trip into the biggest store that coincidentaly was also having a sale. I picked up a magnet board for keeping track of the pattern (€ 6.99 -15%) and a super frame. The frame is 49 x 27 cm or 17 x 11 inch. It was the last one they had, and I know of no other hobby store close by that carries them. So, I am one step closed to being ready to start. All I need is to wait for the pattern and threads to be delivered and to buy the fabric. Yay!