Pareidolia

Today my little sedate, sedentary, stalwart stitchers

(a fine example of illiteration for those of you who are

even remotely interested) we're off in our armchairs into

the realms of psychological phenomena.

However this does also involve the visual stimulus of the

mind to make it work but not necessarily a set of

jump leads.  Some of you may not wish to try this at

home and my response, in this instance, consists of only

one word!  No, not that one Alice dear, simply -

"CHICKEN"

followed by much flapping of the elbows and loud

clucking noises.  A childish response admittedly but

nonetheless extremely satisfying.

Not a chicken but close - an owl.

So, let us continue on our voyage of discovery now that

we've weeded out the cowardy custards in our ranks.

We're going to perceive a familiar pattern of something

where none actually exists.  Yes - we're going to start seeing

things just like some of us did in the sixties but this time

without the aid of mushrooms and maybe not so many

flashing colours either.

The Jurist

There's nothing new about pareidolia, it's been around

for ever.  Leonardo da Vinci wrote about it in detail in his

notebooks and in 1566 Guiseppe Arcimboldo painted a

whole load of poultry and fish that looked like a face

in his work The Jurist.

What's this ear?

There's examples to be found everywhere if you only look.

Faces hidden in flowery curtains, little animals in the tea

leaves discarded in the sink (I really must compost more)

and even giant figures in rock formations or angels in the

clouds.  Why the other day I even thought I'd seen a man

in the dust that gathers so annoyingly under my bed but on

closer examination it just turned out to be an extreme example

of wishful thinking and nothing more.

Ssssssssh - I'm concentrating

Now we come to the climax of our psychological journey.

I want you to stare hard at this picture of Sean Bean, screw up

your eyes a bit, hold your breath, cross your legs, count

slowly to 17,594 and then tell me what you see .......

Here's my own guardian greyhound - can you see him?

You might just have caught a fleeting glimpse of the next

Long Dog masterpiece due for release later this year if you're

exceptionally lucky (or a fibber) and I'm not going to

share what I thought I saw for fear of making you all blush!

A woman of character .......

..... with a very dirty laugh.

Who am I talking about?

There's only one person it can be, apart from myself,

- my cousin, Jan Wright.

Jan has been involved in the textile business for many years.

She's well known in the UK for knitwear design and then

she discovered overlockers and her career took off (just like

her horse Sam), in a totally new and unexpected direction.

She has lectured all over the UK and Europe and has 

produced many books and videos on her subject.

One of my girl friends, Gala, can strip and reassemble a

Kalashnikov rifle in a matter of seconds, a skill she learned

during her school days in Russia, and I'm perfectly sure Jan

could give her a run for her money when it comes to a

Babylock Evolve!  There's nothing that woman doesn't know

or can't do with her trusty machine.

Jan's sewing classes are always accompanied by fits of laughter,

her bespoke concourse d'elegance costumes always bring gasps

of admiration, her horsemanship is inspiring and her jokes are

- unrepeatable even on my blog.

When I called round recently she was busy doing a thousand

things at once as usual so I climbed into her wonderful sewing

studio over bolts of cloth, half stitched saddle blankets, dogs

and various accoutrements (what a wonderful word don't you

think?) to settle down for a good old catch up over a cup of tea

and a couple of custard creams.

Now I've finally got round to what I wanted to tell you about.

Just look at these duvet covers she's put together out of bits and

pieces of surplus lengths of material that have been laying about

for ages waiting for inspiration to strike.  Aren't they something?

And all done on an overlocker!

Lady Muck - she's ever so posh!

If you want to find out more about Jan Wright go to the website

janwright.com  visit her on Facebook at Oh To Sew or watch out

for my little cousin and Sam taking part in horse shows 

and equestrian events across the UK - she's the one with the

big grin and all the rosettes!

A new year - a new design

And what a year it's going to be.

2016 isn't just any old year you know because

this summer Long Dog Samplers will be celebrating

twenty glorious, stitch filled years of designs each

one more dazzling and death defying than the last.

Each one stuffed full of colours, backstitches, 

cross stitches, happy stitches, Julia being really silly

stitches and the odd carnation and chick-a-birdie too

for good measure but also to fill in the spaces where

nothing else would fit.  See - my secret is out!

This new design is just the first of many projects scheduled

for release at intervals throughout the coming year with

the real "piece de resistance", the "Long Dog to end all

Long Dogs" (with a price to match) due to hit the road

running (because that's what Long Dogs do best)

this coming summer on our birthday.  You

have been warned so start saving your pennies now!

But to the business in hand, it is with glee and delight

that I give you the first flash of Band of Braves.

I really ought to iron these first but I hate ironing!

Band of Braves is heavily influenced by Native American

symbols and colours.  It measures 154 x 312 stitches in its moccasins,

is stitched throughout in DMC threads and the ransome

demanded on this occasion is £12.60 or a nugget of gold.

Now hurry up and buy yourself a copy before I go on the

warpath and send out a posse to bring you all in.

jools@longdogsampler.com

I'll be waiting for you!  Darn tootin' I will.

You will notice that I have refrained from adding

"yeehah" but the temptation was enormous.

It was Julie made me do it!

Yes, I know.  I said that I was going to have an enforced

break from all things computer - my blog, Facebook,

Google, chat rooms - but how was I to know that I would

receive a jolly email from Hong Kong this morning with a picture

attached that I simply had to share with you all or explode.

Hare Apparent & Hare Presumptive

And "hare" it is - don't they look magnificent.

The originals were stitched in red but I have to admit

that they do look really good in this colour.

Julie stitched them both on even weave material

and used Navy Blue Rico thread No. 124.

Bravo my woman, nice work.

Now I'm going to see if I can climb back on the

no-electronics wagon as if nothing had happened for

another few days.  Well until Saturday to be frightfully

precise when a new Long Dog is due to wiggle out of it's

chrysalis and emerge as a butterfly.  And that's not

a clue either.  It will be more bows and arrows than

butterflies and that IS a clue!

A new resolution, a bit of a challenge?

When I was a fag smoking, gin slurping party girl

way back in the day I never had any trouble

finding something to either give up. temporarily

abstain from or improve upon during the

ghastly, grotty, dreary month of January.

Just an average night out in Acle.

If you're going to make yourself miserable then

you might as well do it at the worst possible time

just to make the whole resolution business even

more bloody not only for you but for those poor

sods who have to live with you too.

I wonder if I'll get a free one for advertising?

Well now my life isn't like that.  Practically my only

little indulgence is a quick squirt of good perfume

every morning whatever I'm doing be it a trip into

the City or a spell of digging at the allotment.

The more expensive the better.

As I now live on my own and all my hormones are

either dead or in remission of some sort I think you

can probably guess where this is going - the sins of

the flesh don't feature on my list either.  (I thought

that was rather tastefully put by my standards)!

Wonder what happened to the poor dude's tail?

I would rather go up a skyscraper (they terrify me) than

give up my love of running dogs, I'd probably starve if

I gave up sewing so that only leaves me with one option.

SOCIAL MEDIA MUST GO FOR 7 DAYS!

No blog posts, no reading other people's blog posts,

no cheery photo's on my Facebook personal page or snaps of

crumpled, out of focus bits of stitching on the Long Dog one.

And, hardest of all - no leaving of comments(one of life's

little pleasures) or hitting the "like" button willy nilly.

Why do all the fun things look like they might be illegal?

Still I can always go for a walk, clean the Lock-Up,

tidy a few cupboards, read a book.  So what am I waiting for?

I have no idea either, I'll let you know when I work it out.

Wish me luck and see you on the 23rd when

I've got a brand new design to set your little hearts a flutter

and your Paypal balances dropping.  TTFN.  Over and out!

Post Downton blues

Well that's it.  Downton is over and a great

big hole has opened up in my television viewing,

Although War & Peace is doing it's very
best to plug the gap..

So no spoilers for those of you who haven't

been lucky enough to see the last series/episode

yet, especially you Candace.

But even though Downton will no longer be on my

"mustn't miss" list I don't seem to have managed

to get that era out of my system yet.

All that wonderful lace.

No Alice dear, the arrow isn't pointing to a nit.

Those fabulous hairstyles that I can only dream about.

Edwardian women had too much hair for their

own good in my opinion.  Just imagine getting

nits in that lot!

You should have thought of that before you pulled the strings.

Those cinched in waists.  No wonder they

all used to faint at the drop of a top hat.

I think I'll stick with elasticated waistbands,

not quite so elegant but certainly more confortable.

Can you see where it dripped?

Then there's always more of that beautiful

lace.  At least in those days they had servants

to get the red wine stains out for you.
This one looks like a very fancy bib.

And then there's the men - what time are

you opening today Mr Selfridge?

Looks like he might have had a bit of a late night.

The Ravens of the Tower

What this has to do about anything I'd be hard pushed to

tell you except that I like ravens, particularly these ones

which I first saw when I was a small child living in London

after the war.

According to legend, if the ravens that inhabit the Tower

of London were lost or flew away, the Crown will

fall and Britain with it.

Posing with the Beef Eaters.

This belief dates back to the dark ages when, after a monumental

punch up between Matholwch, King of Ireland and

Bendigeldfram, King of the Britons the loser's head

was cut off and buried beneath the White Hill (where the

White Tower now stands) facing towards France as a talisman

to protect Britain from foreign invasion.

Over the centuries the superstition has been added to,

amended, tweaked and generally bigged up and to this day

a flock of at least eight ravens is held in permanent

captivity at the Tower where they live like kings.

No point in taking chances after all.

Who's a pretty boy?

But there's one little known fact concerning the Ravens which

dates back to the second world war - the Ravens are all

enlisted soldiers of the Crown.

After the heavy bombing of London only one Raven was able

to survive the Blitz and so Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime

Minister at the time, ordered more ravens to be brought to the

Tower to bring the flock up to it's correct size and from then

on all the birds were issued with attestation cards in the same

way as serving soldiers and the police.

Looks like misconduct to me!

And, just like soldiers, the Ravens can be dismissed for

unsatisfactory conduct.  Caw, stone the crows!

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, we three kings and all that stuff.

If you happen to be in France it's the day to eat your

Galettes des Rois whilst wearing a golden crown

and trying to avoid breaking your teeth on the

little porcelain "feve" hidden inside.

Some of these traditional charms can be really beautiful

(depending on how much you pay for your galette)

whilst others are rather tacky, Disney style offerings

which don't seem to have anything to do with the festival

whatsoever.  First time round I nearly swallowed mine

so you have been warned!

Epiphany Spanish style!

El die de los Reyes in Spain is a major celebration

for which the Spanish turn out in their thousands to

see the parades.  It's also the day the children receive their

presents.  I wonder how many of them actually manage

to wait that long?

But for my money I think I prefer the other meaning

of "epiphany" - a moment of sudden and great revelation!

Epiphany - cat style!

The shape of things to come .....

On this occasion I've decided, never mind twelfth night,

tradition and all that stuff because my hall is no longer

decked with boughs of holly (truth be told it never was as

it's perilously narrow at the best of times).

I'm not going to tell him.

'Tis no longer the season to be jolly (thank goodness, I do

a good "mildly amused", my "cynical" is awesome but

"jolly" isn't really my thing).  The only remaining trace of

the festivities is the odd little sparkle of glitter still clinging

stubbornly to the rug that will probably continue to catch

the light until mid-summer when I give the hoover bag it's

annual empty and full suction returns once more to the

Lock-Up.

Where is all this leading?  Nowhere really but I do love a

good preamble to entice my readers in.  It's like the cheese

in a mousetrap or the smell of rotting meat given off by

the Venus fly trap which, sadly, only seems to work with

insects and health inspectors intent upon keeping the

public safe at all times by tracking down the source of

the foul odour.

However, in 2016 none of you will be safe in your beds

because Long Dog will be celebrating it's 20th birthday

this summer and I shall be releasing a series of utterly

amazing new designs throughout the year starting on

Saturday 23rd January.  Put in in your diary now!

He's over-excited already and it's only January.

So try to be brave (there's a clue there somewhere),

resistance will be futile as this new mutation of the

Long Dog virus has no known cure and the only way to

cope with the symptoms is to treat yourself to each new

design as it appears.

That's the word I've been looking for!

Lay back then ladies, gentlemen and those of you who are 

as yet undecided, and be prepared to give yourselves over

to absolute pleasure, it's going to be one hell of a year!

Would I lie to you?