York has many beautiful antiquarian book shops, which for me are dangerous places to go… Nearly each time I go in, I come back home with bags of new titles. Next to lots of lovey shops, York boasts a huge amount of pubs and cafés. So as A and I sat down for a nice cup of coffee, I dug out my latest book, Medieval English Love Lyrics. As a native Frisian speaker, reading medieval English is not as hard as it seems, as still quite a few old and obsolete English words sound familiar to me in my native tongue.
As we walked out of the café and made our way home through the medieval gardens of the Merchant Adventurer’s Hall, a few lines from a 14th century poem came back to me:
Bytuene Mersh ant Aueril
When spray biginneþ to springe,
þe lutel foul haþ hire wyl
on hyre lud to synge.
Between March and April,
When branches start to bloom,
The little bird enjoys
To sing her own song.
To me, these lines are a little like time-travel: we read the words that were written more than half a millennium ago, and they still move us today. What I liked even more was the fact that the Hall is from the same era as the poem, and in its gardens the trees and branches were blossoming, and the birds were singing. At the same time everything and nothing had changed.
With all these beautiful shades of green, and this sense of Spring all around, I went home and decided to stitch my latest design in fresh green and golden hues. The new pattern is another new Quaker design I’ve created – the pattern is completely original, with a nod to the gorgeous Quaker samplers made at Ackworth school in Yorkshire. You might notice the little swan, often found on Ackworth Quaker samplers. The pattern should be available in my shop in a couple of days. Edit 15.03.16: The pattern is now available, here!
6 comments
Beautiful and peaceful Jacob! Did you shoot with a macro lens for these photos? I’m thinking of getting one.
Have you seen All The Beautiful Things blog? She’s a photographer that loves to cross stitch. She often takes lovely photos of her cross stitch. I follow her on IG. So inspiring!
I’ve just finished designing a spring sampler. Can’t wait to stitch it!
We could all use more love, peace and tenderness. Thanks for sharing your adventures. xx-Jill
Thank you Jill! It’s just a regular ol’ lens that came with the camera, nothing fancy I’m afraid! But I do want to get some lenses though. I’m not familiar with All The Beautiful Things, but I shall check her blog out, thanks for the tip!
The weather is finally turning here in the UK, and today I sat outside on the rooftop terrace stitching away a new pattern I’ve designed. It’s so exciting to stitch new designs, isn’t it? :D. I am inspired too though to make a little Spring stitch kit with some very soft colours… might be too late for that though. Maybe next year! 😛 xx Jacob
Nice! You stitch so fast! Just saw your new pattern on IG. Lovely! I’m going to turn my next spring sampler pattern into a kit. I haven’t done kits before …new territory for me. I often receive orders from customers who are recovering from surgery or an injury. They’re eager to do a gentle stitching project while on the mend. One color of thread makes cross stitching very relaxing. My next pattern will have several colors, but still not too complicated. I’m all about zen-stitching. I see you’re stitching on Sajou. I’ve wanted to try their linen. I only ever stitch on Zweigart. As usual, you bring fresh inspiration. xx-Jill 💗
Thank you Jill! That sounds wonderful – I’m planning on doing a few multi-coloured patterns myself actually! I’ve just designed a couple in collaboration with a Swedish company (hopefully more on that soon…) :). The Sajou linen is absolutely wonderful, I can’t recommend it highly enough! 😀
Hi, quick question. Do you have any patterns available in hard copy, I am not able to download and print currently but love many of the patterns?
Regards
Hi Vivian! Thank you for your kind words! I’m just sending you an email now with some more information! – Jacob