Hello Friends,

I am sitting here catching up on posts from all the blogs I follow and decided it was time I think about updating my own blog!!  Actually I am avoiding finishing the Christmas decorating.  I love to decorate for Christmas, but this year I have had to drag things out of packed boxes from our move to Arizona in order to get started and that has been a task in itself.  So, I am taking a break.

What's new....well, I am reading the book The Needle and The Blood by Sarah Bower. 

Good Reads summary is as follows: January 1067. Charismatic bishop Odo of Bayeux commissions a wall hanging, on a scale never seen before, to celebrate the conquest of Britain by his brother, William, Duke of Normandy. What he cannot anticipate is how utterly this will change his life-even more than the invasion itself.  His life becomes entangled with the women who embroider his hanging, especially Gytha-handmaiden to the fallen Saxon queen and his sworn enemy. But against their intentions, they fall helplessly in love. Friends become enemies, enemies become lovers; nothing in life or in the hanging is what it seems. 

I am about 1/2 way through and I am enjoying it for the most part.  I have a few issues with the book as written.  I think that some of the coarse language is put there for shock value and doesn't really add much to the understanding of the times in which the plot takes place.  In addition the book is written in several tenses which muddies the reading a bit.  However, I  absolutely love reading about the stitching of the tapestry.  There are passages that make the Bayeux Tapestry come alive.  I found it thoroughly enjoyable to be taken back in time and feel myself stitching along with the women working diligently in poor light on one of the most famous pieces of needlework in history.  I felt myself pricking my finger with my needle, feeling the needle moving in and out of the fabric and watching the story come alive in silks and wools.  Each passage detailing the work on the tapestry was such fun to read.  It's worth putting up with some of the other annoying things while reading the book.  You might want to check it out.


In other news, I have joined a blog stitch-along.  Just what I needed..right?  Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  :)  The blog is Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year at www.scarletletteryear.blogspot.com .  Nicola is celebrating turning 50 all year long.  What a great idea!  During that year she is hosting a challenge to those who join her blog to begin and finish samplers from The Scarlet Letter.  I have been working on Wisdom and Innocence since 1998.  As  you can tell, working is a relative word.  There have been a few years in which no work was done on this piece.  I would really like to get it finished!!  Maybe with some encouragement from others and a challenge to boot, I can make some progress in that direction.  Check our her blog and join the fun.



Off to catch up on more blog reading and work on Christmas decorating.

May your life be filled with time to stitch,

Gloria