A week in Cornwall is never enough, but I’m grateful that we are able to afford a holiday and we certainly packed plenty of fun, fabulous places and fantastic food into it. I have the beginnings of a holiday journal, although I’m a little disappointed with my progress. Looking back on last year’s I came home with at least one piece completed and was well on with most of the others. I think maybe this year I’ve been a little too ambitious (there seems to be a bit of a 3D theme going on) and also I somehow managed to not bring several items from threads of the right colour and/or weight to wadding and my erasable pen, meaning that several had to be left in the planning stage. But here is the first part of my progress so far:
Sunday: Travelling. For a start, going Sunday to Sunday is a revelation and traffic wise, definitely the way forward. We’ve been holidaying in Cornwall since 2006 and I can only remember one year previously when we haven’t been stuck in traffic. This year was a traffic jam free breeze and by lunchtime we were travelling down the B3314 towards the Seaview Farm Shop. This B road between the North Cornwall coast and the better known A39 Atlantic Highway is equally picturesque and has some fantastic views of the sea. It also has some wonderful wind-sculpted trees and this gave me a cunning plan. On our last trip in 2021, I started a piece for my holiday journal based on one of these trees, but for various reasons I went no further with the journal. However, knowing that we were going to pass that tree again this year, what an excellent opportunity to reuse the embroidery. And even better, I actually knew where it was! This was as far as I’d got last time:
Luckily I had it in a project bag with more of the mixed threads I was using to couch down for the trunk, so I was able to finish the trunk and branches.
I particularly like the way the large lower branch turned out and so I was a bit uneasy about adding leaves (random cross stitch) as I didn’t want to obscure it too much, but I think it’s turned out reasonably well. I just need to add the grasses on the bank, but I’d not brought any fine threads of the right colour with me, so that’s still to do.
On Monday we visited The Japanese Garden in St Mawgan. I was initially interested in doing something based on bamboo, but I also loved their huge pond with the koi. When I found this piece of Japanese silk kimono fabric in my fabric scraps, the koi won. At the moment I’m adding stitch to the print to develop some of the features. Chain stitch and Palestrina stitch for the tree branches, couching to look like bamboo in the tea house and French knots and seeding for the hill. I plan to add a lightly stuffed needlelace koi to the section in the middle.
Tuesday: This was the wettest day we had so we decided to visit Bodmin Jail. The only thing that really caught my attention was their logo, which you also find in some of the wrought iron work.
I like this as a repeating pattern, but not sure whether I’m going to do that or use a scaled up version and do something in the applique line.
Wednesday: Walk from Hellandbridge to Dunmore. the less said about this the better. We chose it from a book in the cottage as although it was 8+ miles, the book claimed it was ‘very easy walking – relatively flat’. Yes, in comparison to the foothills of the Himalayas, I suppose you could describe it as ‘relatively flat’ and certainly the first half mile and the last three miles along the Camel Trail were flat, but that left five miles which were definitely not! When I wasn’t wheezing up hills out of little river valleys and cursing the author of the book I noticed that the overwhelming colours of the hedgerows were green and bright pink from the Red Campion, Herb Robert and Foxglove that seemed to be the dominant flowering plants.
I chose a piece of leaf printed fabric and worked nested fly stitch in a subtle variegated thread over some of the leaves already printed to vary the texture. Then I found that although I had a variety of suitable coloured pink threads, they were all far too thick for adding the flowers at the right scale. So that one went onto the back burner too…
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At the moment it’s a real mix of getting started and stalling! However, now I’m home, I’ve put each one into its own project bag and I can add the right threads etc. as and when I come across them – hopefully.
your japanese scrap fabric looks like bingata from here. glad you were able to take a little vacation. Love the leafy piece at the end!
Thank you! I’ve been down a bingata rabbit hole and I think it probably is. I have a box of offcuts of imported Japanese kimono fabrics which came from someone who made bags out of them and this was part of that collection. I love being able to look at it and understand so much more about the fabric. Thank you so much.
It’s looking good so far, love the fern fabric and stitching. The logo lends itself to many techniques, and the Japanese fabric is beautiful. Good you’ve managed to use the windswept tree.
A lot going on!
Oh, lovely – a delightful series of little memories of your holiday. And yes, the writers of guidebooks sometimes don’t share our assessment of the walking conditions!
I wish they did!!