White Goat

It is another magical autumn day today and the vineyard is clad in a glow of brilliant green, yellow and red.


I spent the morning stitching, before the sunshine lured me outside to take Tilly for a nice long walk before she went to check on her chickens and her sheep.


She is trying to work out what to do with those sheep... She and Spud (the lamb we reared in spring) are so funny to watch.. I am not quite sure who is rounding up who.

I could have stitched a sheep today instead I stitched a goat.
I am still waiting for the fabric to arrive for my next large crewel embroidery project but I just couldn't wait any longer to try my ideas of how to stitch the silly billy goat. I want a white or cream long haired mountain goat, but is suddenly occurred to me the other day, that since I will be stitching on ivory linen, a white goat might get lost!
Oh dear, that can't happen, he is after all the star of the show. What to do? What to do? The only way to find out is to stitch a sampler, trying a few colours, which is what I spent the morning doing...


The idea was to use shades of  'not quite' cream, with a white or ecru. I might tweak the colours a little for the large piece but I am really happy with the choice of stitches I picked, especially the coat on his back.


I have done it with rows of parallel detached chains (lazy daisy). The rather large stitches are off-set in each row and long anchoring stitches fit between the stitches in the row before.

'Memory of my Youth', Marc Chagall 1924

I am not sure what made me stitch the eye like this... I have always loved the art of Marc Chagall, a poster of his 'Blue Violinist' was the piece of 'art' I ever bought - at a time when my girlfriends were covering their bedroom walls with pop stars.
Anyway, a simple knot for the eye just didn't look right but it wasn't until after I had stitched my goat, I realised it looks a wee bit like it was inspired by the goats I have seen in Chagall's paintings... funny how impressions subconsciously creep into the things we do.

I was so keen to show you this, I still haven't tied off all the ends on the back of the goat! Once that is done, I think I'd better tidy up my desk - it looks like a tornado went through by room.. Now that is an image I won't be sharing LOL.

Enjoy the rest of your week.
Best stitches,
Anna X



Comments

  1. Anna, I am loving that Billy! Goats do have large eyes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a pretty blend of vineyard, sweet animals, and stitching. :-)

    ReplyDelete

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