Day 9 : house and garden

There was a slight frost this morning - enough to look attractive. The couple of participants who went for an early walk seemed to find it clear and crisp.

There was a lovely reflection on the lake.

By 9am we were at work on the various parts of Dove Cottage on our sampler. - a whitewashed brick pattern on the walls, a tile pattern on the roof and a trellis pattern on the leadlight windows.

It was a lot of fun - precise, structural work in fairly familiar stitches, creating texture and bringing the print to life.

When we returned to our stitching after lunch, there were deer on the green outside our room.



It misted over and rained a little.














We tightened our slate frames and Nicola managed to plug our lamps in as it grew gradually gloomier and gloomier and the battery lights were inadequate.












We moved on to the leaves,





experimenting with variegated thread.




At 4pm, when formal teaching finished, Paul Martyn, who makes bespoke furniture in Bowness-on-Windermere, showed us some of his timbers and talked to us about the writing box he made for Nicola to display her sampler. It is a lovely bespoke oak piece that complements and enhances the sampler.

I was not as tired today as yesterday and kept working until just before dinner. My ort pot got plenty of use today. I was pleased with where I got to today. There's a lot more to do, but it is not difficult - and a great deal of fun. Tomorrow we cover the rest of the stitches before taking the samplers, in whatever stage of progress, to the Wordsworth Museum for their display

There was plenty of conversation and we lingered long over dinner, talking of our lives, our friends, embroidery, embroiderers - our sorrows and joys. It is such a  pleasure and privilege to be in comfortable surroundings in the company of like-minded people who share our passion.