so much love in those sawdust hearts

You may remember that back in July I submitted a sawdust heart to WW1 heart project , well last Monday we were up in Yorkshire visiting Ollie, and we were able to go over to Scarborough to see the exhibition. It is on till the end of November and if you are in the area I definitely recommend it. My husband came to support me in a project I had been involved with and he really was moved and very impressed. This is the Link.  The heart above is one of the originals from the Great War and this was the one that inspired Helen Birmingham to start this project.

She made 1,568 sawdust hearts - one for each day of WW1.

Nearly all were returned by crafters all over the British Isles, 

and they were displayed in groups of 25.

What was amazing was how different they all were, as well as how moving they were.

From the traditional....

....to impressive embroidered boats

patriotism from north of the boarder

raw resent memories

simple images from children

complex works of beading

my favourite!

family tragedy

stunning embroidery and design

one to attempt to read later...

and Chris found mine first, I walked past it twice....no excuse...a bit embarrassing

Very proud to be the most southerly pin on this map of British crafters!

Least we forget

This weekend it seems very apt to share this.

In the Town Church we have this wooden cross,

 it is one of the original wooden crosses from World War 1.  

Later they were replaced with the headstones we are all so familiar with.  

This cross belonged to Eric D'Auverge Collings, 

he gave his life for his country at the age of 19 on 23rd August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.

I wear my poppy with thanks for that great sacrifice

Hearts for WW1

Earlier this year I read a piece in a magazine about this amazing project

and I signed up straight away.  I have found these hearts fascinating since I first saw one in the window of an antique shop here.  They are the first example of Occupational Therapy 

being used in the UK and they are stunning.

Mine blank heart arrived and was numbered 43, I obviously was very early in ordering as she has made 1,568 blank hearts, one for every day of World War 1.

I did attempt to decorate with beads and sequins, not sure what I was doing wrong but just could not get the sequin pins to stay in.  So I went back to what I know, embroidery.  The lines of back stitch are to represent the contour line of the horrendous trenches with the poppies then rising out of them.

I made the poppies by first ironing black interfacing on to some red and black shot fabric I had, then cutting out oval shapes, as I wanted them to be stylised like the poppies we buy for Remembrance Sunday.

They were then anchored in place with two sizes of black beads.

Pleased with the end result, but there really are some amazing ones being sent in which are being posted of their Facebook page.  I do hope I can get up to Scarbourgh to see the exhibition in November, I think it will be very moving indeed.

Gorgeous Graffiti

Over Christmas we had a couple nights in Winchester, 

it was was where I did my degrees, so it was a pleasure to show Chris my memories of the city. Including the Cathedral.

When my Mum was ill I spend a lot of time in there, 

its a very calm place as well a stunningly beautiful.

But strangely the thing I have always found most fascinating

 is all the old, old graffiti, 

carved into the pillars.

Some of them are very deep, must of taken hours and hours

you then start finding dates, is this really 1737.....

......or 1681....or are these numbers something else?

There has pretty much always been soldiers in Winchester, so they might be regiment numbers?

But these two are definitely dates!  

What strange things have you found in unexpected places?