Friday 27 July 2012

XXXXXX - cross stitch

♥woolf♥ has invited me to join her XXXXXX stitch challenge this weekend. I am posting early as I am just leaving to visit my childhood home in Derbyshire 
I treasure my mother's cross stitch tablecloth which she embroidered many years ago. She died far too early, and this is a lovely excuse for me to get the cloth out, feel it and just remember her. 

We are attending the family wedding of my mother's granddaughter. A granddaughter that she did not know who was born after she had died, so a poignant moment amongst the happiness.
As I raise my glass of champagne at the wedding my mother will be close in my thoughts.

48 comments:

  1. Dear Rosemaary
    It's great to have beautiful things from your parents! Especially when they are made so hard. Your mother embroidered tablecloth is wonderful. It has a lot of hard work !! In my home mothers give their handwork to daughters, but if they have not, they give to grand daughters .
    Have a nice day
    Olympia

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    1. Dear Olympia - thank you for your kind comment. I am just about to leave for the weekend, closing down the computer, and going to a family wedding.
      We have just had bells ringing out all across the country, church bells, and hand bells to welcome the Olympics, I think that it was a joyous way to start them off.

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    2. That's a wonderful way to welcome the Olympics!

      I simply adore the sound of church bells. We used to hear them occasionally when we lived in the city, but not out here in the country, no churches nearby. I don't think a lot of churches even ring them anymore. It's a shame.

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    3. Dear Marie - it was a fun way to start the Olympic day, and involved no expense whatsever. It was lovely to see the happy faces on the children shaking their little hand bells. For the first time the Big Ben bell in London was rescheduled and tolled out 42 times.

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  2. Your title didn't lead me to expect the wonderful heirloom you featured in this article. That cloth is striking, and shows the love and craftsmanship your mother put into it.

    We have some pieces of my grandmother's needlework, and those hand-made pieces are more valuable to us than than any silver or china articles she might have handed down.
    --Road to Parnassus

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    1. You are so right, handmade things are something that we can treasure much more than articles passed down to us. I can still see my mother sitting embroidering in the evenings when I was young. Happy memories.

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  3. Dear Rosemary, What a beautiful cross stitch tablecloth. What a treasure you have from your mother. I love the images, so unusual. The lion reminds me of the classic drawings of the Italian Renaissance.
    Wish we had bells ringing here. I think that is what I miss most. When in Europe we try to stay in places where church bells wake us up early in the morning. Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Dear Gina - the lion does strike a pose rather like the Italian renaissance ones, and I am also reminded of Chinese elements, mainly because my mother used the traditional willow pattern colours.
      It was a strange thing about the countrywide bell ring, I found it unexpectedly quite emotional.

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  4. It's a truly wonderful tablecloth Rosemary. Your mother was a very talented women. xxx

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    1. Thank you Katie, it is a little keepsake I am fond of because of the memories.

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  5. Lovely tablecloth! It's wonderful that it invokes some nice memories for you. Have a great day and weekend.

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    1. Thank you Marie - back from the weekend, and we have had a happy family time.

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  6. What a wonderful way to remember your mother, and I know this charming piece of handwork will be treasured for generations. I love the design!

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    1. Thank you Mark, I like the design too. I think that it is particularly enhanced by the use of the two shades of blue that my mother chose to use.

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  7. Hi, Rosemary - Thank you for sharing your mother's embroidered cloth with us. It is beautiful and very special. Enjoy the wedding and all the Olympic festivities.
    Cheers,
    Loi

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    1. Dear Loi - thank you. What a lot of excitement we are having now that the Olympics have finally got underway. The family wedding was a very happy occasion, and I also managed to visit some places of interest that I shall show when I have sorted myself out.

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  8. Beautiful stitchwork and what a beautiful tribute to your mom Rosemary. I'm sure this tablecloth is treasured.
    Have fun at the wedding.
    Bye,
    marian

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    1. Lovely wedding Marian - nothing quite a wedding for getting family and friends together. It all went off well, and I have returned home with a beautiful floral display from the occasion.

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  9. Good to remember your mother like this. Enjoy your wedding day. Congratulations.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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    1. Thank Filip for your kind comments. Great wedding.

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  10. What a beautiful cloth! I treasure I things my mother made too - she was my friend and teacher as well as my mother.

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    1. Dear Nilly - what a very special comment to make about your mother, and what a lovely relationship you both must have had.

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  11. Dear Rosemary,
    How proud your mother would be , to see that you use her lovely hand cross stitched table cloth. Its beautiful. So much work was put into it.
    Hope that your weekend was a good one and that the wedding was a great succsess..
    The bells were perfect to start it off.
    happy days
    val

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    1. Dear Val - how quickly things go when you are having fun. Yes, the wedding was a great success. The brides sister managed to bring tears to our eyes. She was reading a poem about her sister and their close relationship when she broke down in the middle of it, thus setting the whole congregation off - tears of love and happiness though.

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  12. Oh, this table cloth is absolutely beautiful!!!! I hope you have a wonderful time!!!
    ~Marica

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    1. That is so kind Marica and thank you we did have a wonderful time

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  13. Wow!

    that is beautiful what amazing handiwork......your Mum was very talented it must be lovely to have it near you to bring you comfort.

    Thanks so much for sharing and have a wonderful time in Derbyshire

    Helen :)

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    1. Dear Helen - thank you. It was rather fortuitous that ♥woolfe♥ invited me to join you all this week with a theme of cross stitch especially as my mother would be in our thoughts at the wedding. Thank you we had a happy time.

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  14. Rosemary, your mother's cross stitching work in magnificent. I wonder if she sat beside the fire or out on a lawn chair while she stitched. I hope your weekend was full of family love and sunshine. xo Carole

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    1. Thank you Carole - my memories are that she sat beside the fire in the winter and stitched, no TV then. We had perfect weather and a happy time.

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  15. and a beauty it is!
    I come from a family of clearers
    not savers
    there's nothing left
    and I find that so sad
    ....

    hope you had a wonderful wedding-weekend!
    xx

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    1. Thanks for your comment Patrice - a tend to more of a clearer, but it is subjective. However, I am married to a horder!!! Thank you happy wedding./

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  16. What a great trasure to remember your mother by! It is an amazing work! Hope the wedding is/was nice, and I wish you a great week !

    Love from Lise

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    1. Thank you Lise - sometimes, I think, we appreciate things like this more as time passes by.
      Lovely wedding and thank you.

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  17. Replies
    1. Thank you Roanna - we need to make the most of our mothers and fathers whilst we still have them. Sadly it is a long, long time that I lost my mother, and often there are things that I would love to be able to tell her about.

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    2. The first person I turn to when I need someone is my mom. We have a rather difficult relationship. When Giovanni and I started dating, my "family centre" shifted to him. He became my rock. My parents also separated after 35 years of marriage that year, so she thinks I'm angry at them when I'm not. It's hard when your personalities clash or there's obstacles that make you both angry, and then you remember certain things, sacrifices, everything she's done for you.

      I'm not very religious, but I always believe that my grandparents and mother-in-law who are gone can hear me when I need them. I used to talk to my mother-in-law during my first trimester asking her to help me face all the sensations and fears I had.

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    3. It is wonderful that you had such a good relationship with Giovanni's mother, and sad that you lost her before her first grandchild was born.
      Little Wynne will be a good bridge with your mother, you have the added difficulty of her being so far away too.

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  18. Thank you for showing us this lovely treasure Rosemary. This precious cloth will give en especial feeling to the wedding and I bet any mother would be proud to know that they could contribute to such an important event. *smiles* Norma

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    1. Thank you Norma - what a lovely comment to make. I am late seeing the other cross stitch posts as I have only just returned home.

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  19. A treasure to ceep close to your hart Rosemary, knowing it was made by your mother's own hands and thinking how many hours she must have spent making this beautiful work.
    Have a great week

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    1. Thank you Marijke - thank you for your lovely comment - do hope everything is progressing well with your daughter.

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  20. I admire your mother's exactitude and the beautiful color sense she showed in the choice of these two blues. This cloth is indeed a treasure. Blue was my grandmother's favorite color, and it was she who taught me how to cross stitch. -sus

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    1. What a very nice thing to say Susan - I agree with you about the restrained use of colour, it would have been easy to use lots of colour which I do not think would have had the same impact as using the 'willow pattern' colourway.

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  21. how wonderfully moving, this memory of yours.
    i hope you've had a lovely stay in derbyshire (a few memories of my own).
    your mum was a GREAT cross stitcher, wasn't she? lovely cloth.
    thank you for playing!!
    n♥

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    1. Dear Nadine - thank you for inviting me, it was you who made me put something tangible down at a very appropriate time for us as a family. Pleased that you gave me the opportunity to remember her. Now I am intrigued by your Derbyshire memories!!!

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  22. What a fine table cloth. your mother had a good hand. It's very beautiful.

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    1. Dear Rachel - that is very kind - thank you.

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