Fall Finish

Hi, I stitched my wee chart, Autumn Fall and have tweaked it a little: just for personal taste reasons, not because there are any issues with the chart. I have however altered the official chart as well now.

This was stitched on 28 count Brittney Light Taupe with Belle Soie Briar Patch.

I love the size and have some more little ornies in my head waiting to come out but I still have one more maiden to stitch and one more to finish designing...and she is a doozie!

Autumn for me brings memories of when I was a little girl living in a farm house in Swanton Morley in Norfolk.  My parents were RAF but after I came along, my mum had to leave active service.  So when dad was posted away to some Arabian country far away for a year, I decided that my grandad was my dad.

Grandad and I would go out and explore.  We would walk under corridors of trees, sheltered from the sky by leaves turning red, gold and brown.  I remember kicking rustling leaves and can still smell that fresh, sweet, leafy-smell of slightly decomposing leaves.  The crows and rooks would caw at us and as the leaves dropped, it became easier to see their nests high up in the trees: a whole community of raven-black birds who were always happy to share their very vocal opinions.  And on the way home we would pick acorns and take them to the pigs the next day. Norfolk lanes used to be lined with ancient and massive oak trees: or at least that is how they looked to me at the time!

Pigs like Acorns! 

I used to look at the little acorn cups which always seemed so perfect.  My Enid Blyton upbringing means I still can't look at an acorn without imagining Pip the Pixie using it as a cup when I discard it or it forming part of a pretty table setting for fairies as they party in their fairy circles, sitting on toadstool seats and eating from toadstool tables!

Pumpkins were never very popular when I was small: now we have polytunnels etc, we can grow our own and squashes have become a part of our regular diet.  I don't use canned pumpkin: to be honest I doubt I could buy it here, but I will happily prepare pumpkins and make sweet pumpkin pie.  I toast the seeds with a little salt and they are a lovely snack.  And where would we be without spicy pumpkin soup on a cold evening?

And why base the design on an Autumnul evening?  Because of the fond memories I have of when we would be allowed out to sit by little campfires and in the cold, clear night we would look at the stars and breath ' dragon smoke' into the cold air.  Strange isn't it, what entertains a child?  I still like to breath steamy breath in cold air though I tend to be a bit more discrete when channelling my inner dragon!  

So Pumpkins have made it into the chart as have the stars.  Such a small peice, but so many memories brought back!