Anna Pearson's Needlepoint Blog

So many of us consider our lives stressful, the demands of family, the pressures of work, the problems of the daily commute; but nothing is new! The three part television series , ‘Armada – 12 days to Save England ‘– I mentioned   on Facebook on Friday showed Queen Elizabeth I waiting for news of the English fleet engaged in combat with the Spanish galleons in the English Channel.   Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen was always urged to marry to safeguard herself;   there was a strong move in the country to re-establish the Catholic Church, without an heir, tormented by nightmares and the strain of keeping up appearances if the Spaniards had landed on English soil her days would definitely have   been numbered. So, in this excellent series she is shown sitting with her ladies waiting for news and stitching the most beautiful piece of embroidery, it looks like cut work to me I heard Anita Dobson who plays Elizabeth I in the series talking on the radio, that it too...

Until recently I wasn’t familiar with the expression ‘Swishing’ but everyone seems to be doing it with clothes, books and items they no longer want in return for items they do.   I believe the popular Radio 4 BBC programme ‘The Archers; held one recently for their village of Ambridge,    Locally in Primrose Hill there was one for children to first dress as their favourite character and swop books. Great fun so I decided to adapt the idea to needlepoint.   People have long told me how their stash of threads is rapidly resembling a mountain and hate to throw either books or materials out.    I regularly have an ‘Open Day’ to share new designs so bringing their un-loved items to swop was an added attraction - last week was the event.   The attendance was encouraging,    The selection of threads people brought in was exciting and definitely is encouraging me to design even more pieces to expressly use up their own threads.   But...

We have just returned from our very first river cruise; until now we have enjoyed exploring countries – like our recent trip to Myanmar (Burma that was) but that necessitated moving from city to city, beautiful location to fabulous temple – all packing, unpacking and different beds almost every night! On a river cruise such as this one we saw five countries, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary all from the comfort of one comfortable cabin, in the space of seven days.   Just for the record we travelled up the Danube, going from Bucharest (close to the mouth of the river into the Black Sea) and up though Belgrade to Budapest.   Also allowed quite some relaxed stitching time!   Crafts have always been popular in Eastern Europe, possibly as they have long cold winters and with their centuries of troubles including the very recent past, staying quiet at home was practical.    Furthermore some of the area have lent towards the Christian church in...

We have had the first session of the two day Lettering Class, everyone enjoyed it.  Hard at Work We started off exploring the many, many types of lettering that could be used on needlepoint with the help of a specially prepared work manual.   This gave examples of simple letters, script alphabets, monograms, nautical flags that represent individual letters, and many more. Hard at Play   Besides numerous alphabets there was examples of how each type could b put to create whole projects or simply add a personal touch to a piece.   A lively discussion ensued with many examples of my own work being handled and discussed   Gill Alphabet  Phrase Probably the areas that appealed most to the students were ‘Phrases’ , sayings like ‘You aren’t getting old just more valuable’ and one student brought in a great saying about gardens which will call out for a pretty floral border (to be worked on Day 2).   The Eric Gill script alphabet worked on a...

As mentioned before the weekend I expressed the hope that, because of the back to back sport over the weekend I would get a great deal of stitching done and promised to share any progress! Scheme II & III Well, here is what I managed – finishing a third colourway of Tudor Rose and quite good progress on my Rhinoceros.   Some time ago I showed a ‘vide poche’ piece with Robert’s initials and multiply borders that I completed however I enjoyed working all the different borders so much that I vowed to follow the same idea and make it into a boxed cushion – so as to show the intricate border flat!  The Rhino is hand-painted from a woodcut by Durer (1515) and worked in Vineyard silks (my first use of this thread and good for Tent stitch as it is not divisible) The Border introduced Threadworx Overdyed floss and stranded cotton.   By working the two central columns (top and bottom) and then the corners it makes fitting in the in-between columns simple an...

Just had a spectacular 20 hours;   Swan Lake ballet, the annual meeting of the Needlepoint Network and choosing threads of my next project;   sitting with a cup of tea,   catching my breath after so much excitement. Last evening we went to see ‘Swan Lake’ at a live cinema relay from The Royal Opera House, Convent Garden.   I have written about these live relays before, one sits there and join audiences in more than 1069 cinemas in 26 counties to enjoy world class performances.   Swan Lake was no exception; Anthony Dowell’s production evoked the opulent period of 1890 Russia when Tchaikovsky wrote the music; In my ignorance I had thought the whole story revolved around the swans living by the lake with their classical white costures, but two of the Acts were at Prince Siegfried’s palace, masked balls, acrobatic entertainers and sumptuous costumes. In addition to the beautiful sets by the Lake with the ‘swans’.     Natalia Osipova and Matthew Gol...

While, as I have said in the past I love travelling, seeing new places, meeting interesting   people and getting some truly wonderful inspiration for my needlepoint designs I have to admit that it would appear that some terrible things have happened almost immediately after we have left a country. This has been brought to mind with the destruction and bulldozing of the ancient Assyria capital of Nimrud and the great concern for the future by Unesco the United Nations cultural agency. I well remember the excitement of visiting the Riace bronzes in Reggio di Calabria, more than 2000 years old and discovered in the sea of the coast of Italy – I wrote about them in a blog of the …… when we had been on one of our Italian stitching trips However some of the buildings and architectural detail that have inspired me have resulted in lovely designs.    There are two from Christchurch Cathedral on the South Island New Zeeland; Christchurch Tiles on the left and Cathedral Tile...