Monday 29 December 2014

Life's little surprises

Every once in a while, and quite unbidden, something rather
nice happens.  It's not something that occurs daily or
even on a weekly basis because, if it were, then it would
become mundane and lose it's charm.
 
St Hippolyte's marriage in all it's glory
 
It's never something you could predict, certainly doesn't have to
be grandiose and the range of possibilities is vast and
limitless.  How exciting is that?
 
St Hipp converted to a wedding sampler
Just recently I was the recipient of a goodly dollop of the
aforementioned serendipidy in the shape and form of an
email (with attachments - oh goody!) from a
gentleman called Dan in Illinois.
 
32# evenweave linen and ghost front door - spooky!
I skipped hastily through the usual lavish praise of my outstanding
creations which is, I must admit, no more that I deserve, in order
to get to the heart of the matter.  Dan had send me photos
of his magnificent "ouvrages" as we called them in France,
and some of his crosstitching too.  Please don't snigger Jan,
there was nothing smutty intended (she said with an
innocent little "Who me?" smile).
 
Vicki Clayton silks from HDF
Dan has a lot of style and is not afraid to go where his
inclinations lead him.  Not a word Jan, you've already been
warned once.  He's taken trusty, staid old St Hipp and given it
a good kick in the pants for which his pennance has to be
three Hail Mary's and his reward a place in cross stitch heaven.
He's gone beyond minor personalisation and entered the
realms of big time reconstruction work.
Scaffolding at all four corners!
 
Estimated to have taken over 900 hours to complete
 
Good on you Dan, more power to your needle.
You can reposition this girl's motifs any time you like.
 
This actually took so long to complete that the names of
the couple's three children have also been added.
 
I wonder how many other gentleman stitchers (apart from Dan
and my darling little Kevin) there are out there beavering away in
their sheds whilst listening to their vinyl collections and
knocking back the odd glass or three of fine Burgundy.
Give me a shout if you can bear to put your stitching down
for five minutes.  I'd love to hear from you.

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