On the trail.....

 Seeing as we were (at last!!) allowed out of Wales yesterday...

...and it's been months and months since I had a "colour-fix"...

...we took off across the Severn Bridge into Somerset and Wiltshire...

...to do a bit of background history trailing...

...and some serious retail therapy!!

As you know...

...I am working on Selena's sampler...

...and I've been looking into the family history.

Her parents - Samuel & Mary Watts came to Blaenavon from Somerset/Wiltshire about 1840.

I say "about" because their son Thomas was born in Westbury Wiltshire in 1839...

...and Selena was born in Blaenavon 2 years later.

Samuel and Mary were married in Mary's local parish church in Nunney, Somerset in 1838.

This was our first stop yesterday.

A lovely old church dating back  400-500 years...

...and, no doubt, on a foundation much earlier than that because of the castle right opposite!

The interior is delightful...

...although I felt a bit sorry for the monuments shoved into a corner...

...and especially so for the poor guy put onto a windowsill!!

They have uncovered some rather early wall paintings too.

I left a lengthy note in their visitors book...

...and my copy of the marriage entry...just for their interest.

After Nunney we drove over to The Patchwork Rabbit at Bromham...

...where I had a SUBSTANTIAL dose of retail therapy!!!!! :-D

This bagful will keep me stitching for QUITE some time.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Back at Ty Mabon...

...I've done a few more bits with my Selena samplings...

This was the piece I showed last week...

...now mounted onto a patchwork of William Morris fabrics...

...and finished off with mother-of-pearl buttons.

Another piece was charted and stitched...

...the strawberry border and a few "doodles".

When I looked closely at one of Selena's trees...

...I noticed that they were stitched in blocks of four cross-stitches...

...but also had a larger cross - corner to corner- over the top.

It raises the surface and has a different look from the "normal" crosses around it.

I enjoyed playing with this one!

I am now charting trees and getting ready to stitch another couple of sample pieces.

Oh Happy Days!

I have such an amount of stuff that I want to get done over the next couple-or-so weeks...

...so I'm taking a bit of a blog-break until early May...

...when I should have quite a bit more to show.

Meanwhile...

Take care lovely folks...

See you in May

X C

April has arrived!!

 ...and, hopefully, "things" will begin returning to some kind of "normal....soon?

After my "BIG DECISION".....

...I have felt a lot "lighter"...

...and things are progressing much easier now.

I feel that I have done the right thing.

I introduced you to "Selena Watts" last week...

...my latest sampler purchase.

Here she is in full...and she's quite a size!

Stitched area 40cms x 52cms....on 25 count openweave linen with silk thread.

I know it is silk because I snaffled a couple of threads from the back...

...and burned them!

The little crusty bead at the end confirmed my original thoughts...silk it is.

The colours have faded and quite a lot of the thread has gone/perished.

The linen background fabric has survived extremely well though.

Quite what has happened to the silk ...I don't know. No moth holes.....

I have made a start on some charting.

Remember the wee doggy?

Well...

...I have done a small piece of that area this last week.

I have used DMC threads for now...

...and 25 count Zweigart Dublin raw linen.

I am pleased with the result thus far...

...but I've ordered some silk threads from Jean Oliver to do some larger samples...

...and the full reproduction.

I have decided to make a small-ish book to hold all of my working sample pieces.

I would like to think that Selena may have had something similar! :-)

She didn't live to a big age. The poor girl died at 21...

...but she must have done a good job of stitching (her sampler was done when she was 13)...

...because 5 years later, she is entered in the Census as being a "DressMaker".

Good for her!!

My book with Selena's name plate on the cover (although I think I'll stitch one instead)

Holes drilled in the spine to take signatures...

Plate of "Miss Attwood's School" on the back cover...

(Miss Frances Jane Attwood was a "School Mistress" in Blaenavon and can be found in the 1851 & 1861 Census. She married Thomas Griffiths and had one son called Thomas Gordon Griffiths. I haven't tracked down exactly which school this was...probably one of the Chapel schools as the main school had houses for school master and mistress....and Frances was living with her parents.)

Signatures made out of my "leather paper"

An old map of "Chapel Row" where Selena lived...

...and pages of the Census showing her name and occupation.

It is SUCH a fascinating project...

...and I just can't wait for the Gwent Archives to re-open so that I can find out more!!

I feel so close to this girl when I am sitting stitching pieces of her sampler....

...and the plan is to chart the piece in it's entirety...

...then donate the original to the Blaenavon Heritage Museum based in the old School building

next to St Peter's Church in Blaenavon.

Selena will be going home. :-)

Please come along with me on this journey...

...there will be lots of little bits of stitching and info as and when I find it!!

Have a good week

x C