Once in a blue moon

Every now and then, I come up with a slightly off-the-wall idea for a design. On this New Year's Eve, with a blue moon high in the sky, I'm counting down the minutes until midnight with a new clock design!

My inspiration for this design is an actual tall case clock crafted around 1796 by Simon Willard (1753-1848), the premier clockmaker of colonial America. Born in Grafton, Massachusetts, one of four clock-making brothers, Willard was singularly influential in advancing the design of clock movements at a point when wealthy colonists began to clamor for timepieces for their homes.

By the time this clock was made, Willard had moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he set up shop with his brother Aaron. The advertisement for the clock described it as one of a line of "common eight-day clocks with very elegant faces and mahogany cases, priced from 50 to 60 dollars." Little did Simon Willard dream that just over two hundred years later, one of his tall case clocks would sell at auction for more than two million dollars!

The case itself, crafted by an unknown cabinetmaker, is of Hepplewhite design. It boasts of quarter-fan inlays, rope banding, and brass finials above the fretwork on the top. I've situated the clock in a hallway setting typical of the period, complete with dentil crown molding, chair rail and floor molding. Wallpaper above the chair rail and wainscoting below it are also in keeping with interior decoration of the day.

Join me as I explore new territory for 2010!

Ending the year in Australia

Macquarie Lightstation is finished well before New Year's Eve!

I finished the tower itself, working the dome in the foreground in a satin stitch with white DMC cotton floss. Underneath the dome, the two rows of molding were formed with gobelin stitches over two threads. The ornament on top of the dome was stitched with an oblong cross stitch vertically, followed by another oblong cross stitched horizontally on top of the first.

I then added shading with DMC ecru floss and windows worked in a spring stitch with DMC floss #318. The weather vane, railing and fence in front of the lighthouse all used black DMC rayon floss to add a bit of shine without the glint of a metallic thread.

The roof of the cottage to the left of the lighthouse was worked in a slanted gobelin stitch over four threads with DMC floss #838. The foundation of the lighthouse was stitched with DMC floss #414, and grass was added with Sheep's Silk "Green Leaves Dark."

All that remained was the tree, which I had thought to be a deciduous variety. Luckily, before I French-knotted myself into deep trouble, both DH and Judy Harper set me straight that it was a pine tree--specifically, a Norfolk pine from Norfolk Island off the east coast of Australia. So I stitched it with Impressions "Pine Forest," in slanted long stitches following the direction the branches were growing and turning my canvas 90 degrees where necessary. The trunk was formed in tent stitches with Felicity's Garden "Fawn."

Macquarie Lightstation makes the twelfth lighthouse I've adapted to needlepoint and stitched in 2009--not too shabby for a year's work! Only twelve more to go, and I'll hit 100!

Halfway there

Poor Macquarie Lightstation! For days I've been picking it up, stitching a little bit, then putting it down to attend to holiday chores. When I finally had a minute to take a photo today, I realized it was a little more than half finished!

The tower itself was stitched with white DMC cotton floss, mostly in basketweave with a few decorative stitches for architectural elements--satin stitch for the dome of the lantern room, gobelin stitches over two threads for the foundation of the railing and the molding underneath it.

The sky is in the process of needle-blending and it, too, is almost finished! I began at the top with four plies of DMC floss #597, then added DMC #598 and 3811 in a 3/1, 2/2, 1/3 combination of plies. I'm currently at two plies of DMC #598 and two plies of DMC #3811--I'll finish off the left side with one ply of DMC #598 and three plies of #3811, and end the right side with four plies of #3811.

When I've finished stitching the lighthouse itself, I can complete the sky and then add the shading as well as the weather vane and railing.

A Cape Cod Christmas

The presents are --finally--wrapped and tucked under the Christmas tree for the morning. I wanted to share a little of my Cape Cod Christmas with you before I rejoin my family to discover what's lurking in the stockings. And no, the stockings aren't needlepointed--cobblers' children don't have shoes, either--but two of them were knitted by yours truly the first year we were married, and are still hanging in there--the stockings and us!

This is a photo of our family room mantel decorated for the holidays Cape-style. I might have been born in Connecticut, but my parents took me to the Cape on vacation for the first time when I was eight months old. I guess the sea air got to me even at that early age! I'm not sure if you can see them if you click on the photo for an enlargement, but there are three lighthouses in the Elizabeth Mumford painting.

To all who celebrate this wondrous holiday, Merry Christmas! And to all my stiching friends who observe other holidays, May the Floss be with you!

In search of summer Down Under

It's hard to think warm thoughts when 2-1/2 foot snow drifts are piled up against the front of your house. So on this first full day of winter, I'm headed Down Under as an armchair traveler to celebrate the first full day of summer! My last lighthouse design for 2009 will be Macquarie Lightstation, the first lighthouse constructed in Australia, located in Vaucluse, a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales.

Less than a year after the First Fleet arrived in 1791 to settle New South Wales, a flagstaff was erected on this site. The first aid to navigation, a wood and coal-burning apparatus in a basket mounted on a tripod, was lit in 1793.

The first lighthouse structure was commissioned in 1816 by Lachlan Macquarie, governor of Australia from 1810 to 1822, and completed in 1818. Its designer was the famous convict architect Francis Greenway, whose work so impressed Macquarie that the governor granted Greenway a pardon. The designer's warning about the fragility of the sandstone with which the lighthouse was constructed soon became evident: as early as 1823, large stones fell away, and iron bands were placed around the tower to prevent further shifting of the building materials.

In 1883, a new lighthouse--virtually identical in appearance but constructed of sturdier materials--rose next to the original structure, and the two towers stood side-by-side for several years before the original tower was demolished. The original lens was automated in 1976, and the lightkeeper dismissed in 1989. But the Macquarie Lightstation's characteristic flashing light still shines with a range of 25 nautical miles across Sydney Harbour into the Pacific Ocean.

Farewell to Port Dalhousie

Another lighthouse is finished--Port Dalhousie in St. Catherines, Ontario. This makes lighthouse #87, but who's counting?

I stitched the water last night in a horizontal diagonal cashmere stitch to provide a hint of movement. To keep the water behind the lighthouse in the background, I used DMC cotton floss #312, while the water in the foreground was worked in one shade darker--#311. The difference in color adds a bit of depth to the overall canvas.

What's next? I'll have plenty of time to contemplate that today--there's upwards of a foot of snow on the ground and the flakes are still falling. I'd take a photo, but the windows are snowed over so you can't really see outside--think of the Ice Palace in Dr. Zhivago. If only Omar Sharif would stumble in now, we could have a rousing game of bridge!

Only the water remains!

Finally--I finished needle-blending the sky for Port Dalhousie! I used three successive shades of DMC cotton floss--#3841, 3325, and 3755--and, since I was working from the horizon with the canvas turned upside-down, ended at the top with four full plies of #3755.

I then completed the lantern room with DMC floss #3848, with #3847 for the shadowing. The beacon itself was worked in tent stitches using Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002.

All that remains now is to select floss from the same blue family of DMC floss and stitch the water!