Let's celebrate!

The old year, a hard one for many, is ending, and the new one--offering hope and a clean slate--is about to start.

Let's celebrate with an image that you can use throughout the year for your joyous occasions!

(Thank you, Microsoft, for the free clipart image that I uploaded into StitchPainter for stitchers' personal non-commercial stitching fun!)

A door monster from via Brera to scare away the bad spirits for 2013

Whew! That was quite a stretch of intense, but intensely satisfying, work, wasn't it?

Here's a scary door Gorgon monster from...More...... ...via Brera in Milan to frighten away the bad spirits from your Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

It would make a great rectangular pillow, or--if you're ambitious and ready to confront it in all its unaltered glory--a chair back, or fire screen. (As usual, if you find the design too complex, print it, use a felt-tipped pen to outline the main areas, and use only 3 or 4 hues to achieve a great effect. It's easy, and will help you realize how you, too, can do your own designs...it's so much more fun!)

I uploaded the image, which I snapped only a few days ago, into Stitchpainter. A bit of fussing with the positioning and size, and voila'!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all! Enjoy!

Bayeux (Non-) Tapestry

Hello! Still running with work, here, do hope to spend more time with you, soon. In the meantime, this article on the so-called Bayeux Tapestry caught my eye, and I thought it would interest you, too.

Eh?...More...... Just in case you've not heard of it, it's not even a (woven) tapestry. It's really an enormous embroidered account of the Norman (i.e., northern French) conquest of England in 1066.

Recent studies not just of the front, but more importantly of the back--where it's possible to disentangle the Gordian knot about what was done first and, to a certain extent, by whom--have convinced the examining scholars that it was done, not by nuns as previously thought, but by professionals.

The stitches are exactly the same that we still use, today.

Cool!

Want to read the article? Go here.

Bye for now!