Eleanor Parr and more photos from England

My goodness time flies since my last post.  I gave been working on my Eleanor Parr.  Eleanor is a very big girl even on 40ct.  I'm working her with DMC as charted.  Eleanor is a sampler that isn't a quick stitch.  She's very time consuming as there are a lot of colour changes especially where the birds are. 

Thought that you might to see a few more photos from our trip to England.  After we came back from France we hired a car for 3 weeks and had a wonderful time.  These are a few of them the photos that are on my iPad.  Will have to transfer more over to it.  It was wonderful to be back in a England.  The last time I was here was 30 years ago and it was if I had only been there the previous year.  My DH had never been before.

One of the places I always wanted to go to was Herstmonceux as that's where Hestera Harmer came from.  Also my GGG Grandfather.   I love taking photos of Churches. 

I have a thing for grave stones in a Church yard.  Sadly the best ones that we saw were in spots where we couldn't stop.  My DH started complaining about the ABC's ....... Another bloody church 😄

I have always liked going to Brighton and have been there a few times.  You can't go to Brighton without going to the pier.

Have always loved English beaches that are all stones.  So different from the beautiful sandy beaches from Australia.  I have a stone from here.  I seem to collect stones from beaches.  I gave one that I picked up from my very first trip to England a long time ago.  It was from Merlins Cave in Cornwall.  Even on a cold December day there were people sitting on the beach catching a few Rays.

The Brighton Pavillion.  Such a fascinating place.

Arundel Castle where the Dukes of Norfolk live.  Couldn't get close to it as there was a Christmas Fair around the Castle. 

Stonehenge.  So different from previous visits.  You used to be able to walk amongst them and park across the road. 

The Roman Baths in Bath.

One of my favourite places in Cornwall is St Ives.  Have always loved Cornwall.  I think it's a combination of reading and falling in love with all of Daphne du Maurier's books and Winston Graham's Poldark.  Have just throughly enjoyed watching the new series of Poldark.  Cornwall is at her best in this one. 

We stayed in some amazing places on our trip away and in St Ives we stayed in a wonderful spot.  It was right on the water.  This  was our view from our balcony.  The sound of the sea lapping on the rocks was very relaxing.  Lots of the towns in Cornwall have very narrow streets and St Ives is one of them.  Gets very hairy when another car is coming.

Jane and Hestera are Framed and the Bayeux Tapestry

I thought that you might like to see Jane, now that she is finished and hanging in my hall way.  I was going to hang her next to Rebecca, but the Men in the house thought that she would look better hanging in the hallway.  Jane is a lot bigger than Rebecca.  Rebecca hangs on a wall with The Tablet Sampler and Harriet Burry which are of a similar size.  Anything for a quiet life lol.

I have also framed Hestera Harmer.  I was very lucky with the frame.  My Sister and Dad downsized and she gave me some prints that she didn't want that were in beautiful walnut burled frames.  Hestera looks wonderful in it.

Now that I have finished Jane, I now working on the beautiful Eleanor Parr by Scarlet Letter.  I fell in love with this sampler when Nicola showed me.  I love the bird border and the two girls remind me of Jane Austen for some reason.  Are they Jane and Cassandra, or Eleanor and  Marianne or even Lizzy and Jane.  Sisters.  I'm working my Eleanor on my favourite 40ct Antique White linen and the DMC threads as charted.  She really looks beautiful in this version.  I can see where Marsha was coming from.  The sampler was charted from the reverse side of the antique sampler.

While we were in France my husband and I spent an amazing Sunday afternoon in Bayeux.  I have never been there before and had always wanted to see the Bayeux Tapestry.  What an amazing thing it is.  So so beautiful and for its age it is totally amazing.  It was made to go in Bayeux Cathedral which is pictured for Bishop Odo who was William The Conquerers half brother.  The other photos are also in Bayeux.  What a pretty town.  I loved the water wheel.  There are also a lot of graves and memorials there.  These are from WWII.  I think that it's very important for us to remember these amazing young men and women who have laid down their lives for us in all theatres of war.  What a horrible word it is.

Thank you for stopping by.  2 posts in 2 days.  Amazing.  

It's been a long while

I know it's been awhile.  My DH decided to take early retirement and our life has become so busy.  We decided to take a trip to a England and France in late November for 6 weeks.  We had a wonderful time.  The last time I went to England was 33 years ago.  Had been there quite a few times previously and I found that it was amazing how One doesn't forget after all this time how to get around there etc.

One of the things that I really wanted to see were the poppies at The Tower Of London.  We were so lucky that they were still there on just one side when we got there.  It's amazing how many they had pulled out in 11 days. 

One of the other places I wanted to go to was Portobello Road.  It's one of my favourite places in London.  I love antique jewellery and found some beautiful Victorian chains.   It was birthday while we were flying from a Sydney to London (I had the never ending birthday).  My family gave me some money to buy a couple for some of my antique lockets.    

The next lot of photos are from the V&A.  An amazing place to spend a few hours on a wet Sunday. I love Angels and this one is The Archangel Michael.

On our last day in this section before heading over to France was spent at one of my favourite places in England.  Windsor Castle.  I love visiting Queen Mary's Doll House.  My DH and I were really lucky.  Because I have knee problems the guides there allowed us to go up the lifts so that we didn't have to climb the stairs.  It was lovely seeing bits off the usual tourist path.  Of course you are escorted on these bits.  

We both wanted to visit Northern France and go to The Somme where thousands of Australian soldiers died during WWI.  My Great Uncle was sadly one of them. That is his photo down below.  He is one of the 11,000 Australian soldiers who doesn't have a known grave.  

The very large Memorial is in Villiers Brettoneux and the walls hold the names of these young Australian soldiers.  I'm standing where my Uncles name is.  To walk around this graveyard is so so sad.  There are a lot of grave yards for both World Wars all over Northern France and Belguim.  We were able to visit a few of them.  The Cathedral is in Armiens.  One of 2 Cathedrals I was able to go into.  I wanted to go into Rouens but sadly it wasn't opened while we were there.  My DH suffers from the ABC syndrome.  - Not another bloody Cathedral lol.  But I find them quite fascinating.  I love looking in them and seeing the amazing things that they have inside.

Didn't spend much time in Paris.  Only a day.  Ended up so tired after spending a long time in The Louve.  Have been there a few times, but have only seen a small portion of it.  Didn't buy anything in Paris except a few things at The Louve.

Next time, I will post more photos of our trip around France and England.  I hope I haven't  bored you with a small selection of my holiday snaps.  Took about 1400 lol.

More of Jane

 Miss Jane is moving along again at great speed.  I really can't believe how fast she is coming along.  It must mean that I'm enjoying working on her.

As you can see I have nearly finished another section.  I just have to finish off the flower that I'm currently working on.  One I get the shape of the flowers worked out I shall fill them in and then I'm down to the last section.

As you know I have also worked on Rebecca Cullin which is another sampler that is very similar to Jane except Rebecca has a bird instead of Jane and her sheep.  I'm so looking forward to finishing Jane and getting a frame for her and hanging the two of them together.

It's quite amazing when you look at the photo of Jane on the chart.  You really don't realize how beautiful she is.

Thank you for stopping by and checking Jane.  Both she and I thank you :).  The end is getting closer and closer.  Probably two more posts and then she will be done.

More of Jane

Thought that you might like to see a little bit more of Miss Jane.  I really can't believe how quickly she is moving along.  Since the last time I posted I have finished the tree that surrounds Miss Jane and a few little things on that level.

Miss Jane and her lamb were great fun to work.  I loved working on the lamb.

Over the last few days I have been working on the next level.  Yesterday I filled in the strawberries with Bullion Stitch. Love doing those :) and at the moment I'm working on the leaf that will complete this section.  The leaf is stem stitch.  I guess the other bit could be some kind of seed pod.  It's all satin stitch and then has a lattice grid on top.  Th tendril on top is back stitch.  Tonight I should start working on the beautiful fan Carnation that is in the next section.

I find that when I have to outline pieces such as this that it's a lot easier to work it all in back stitch.  I discovered a long time ago that for instance the tree trunk that is in the photo above  that if when I'm working it all out that if I work it out in back stitch that it is easier and I don't get bambozzled following the sketch on the chart.  When I get the motif right or as right as I can get it, then I fill it all in with stem stitch.  The back stitch and stem stitch blend into each other.

We have had so much rain over the last month here in The Mountains.  It's really lovely to be able to see the sun again.  Today is the first day of Spring in Australia and I'm looking forward to some lovely warmer weather.

You might think if you live in the Northern Hemisphere that I have lost the plot and that I'm a bit early saying this.  But in Australia, the season's start every 3 months at the beginning of the month.  It goes back to the time that The First Fleet came to Australia.  It was when the soldiers changed from their Summer uniforms to their Winter Uniform.  1st of September is also Wattle Day.  Wattle is the National Flower of Australia.  It's lovely to see it's cheery face when driving down The Mountain.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting me.