The Lady of Shallot....

Dad sent me a picture of the I am Half Sick of Shadows piece he is working on for me. I thought he wasn't working on it and was shocked at how much he has done! The detail is amazing!



I don't know if you are aware that this piece of art has its origins in the poem "The Lady of Shallot" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is rather a long poem which you can view here but I thought you might like a few of the verses that represent this scene:

Part 2
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

And here's something else... another ornie I can finally show. This was for Nancy fromt he FTT exchange. I decided to stitch her the Blackbird Designs Peace ornie from the Just Cross Stitch ornie mag this year:



I believe she likes it! I enjoyed stitching it for her.

Whilst I'm about it, here's an L Fairy update.



I am enjoying working on her. She is a dream to stitch using 18 count aida and dmc threads 2x2. Very blocky but with some confetti on her body and wings. Again I should apologise for the quality of the picture. I am going to have to wait till Christmas to get a new camera. I'd like to get this one finished for Christmas and Tracy and I are going to SAL together to get one of our wips finished. We did it in the past and it worked well. We just post each other pics of our wip of choice once a week until we get it finished.

Has anyone seen this gorgeous SAL that has just started:

Marquoir

Just click on Marquoir to the right hand side. The first two parts are up. I agonised for hours over a Threadworx conversion for the french threads but when I totted up the amount it was going to cost for the threads and fabric it came to about £40 which is a bit too much for me at the moment. So.... this one is going to have to wait a bit I think.

Enjoy your week everyone. I'm still trying to catch up on my last lot of comments and blogs. Will be visiting you soon. xxx