Ipsden Church, Oxon: patchwork altar frontal, detail of ox eye daisy (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Ipsden Church, Oxon: patchwork altar frontal, detail of common field poppy (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Two further flowers for the altar frontal, an ox eye daisy and a field poppy, finished late Mothering Sunday and after an enjoyable half week with family and 9 week-old baby who was a great source of entertainment, distraction and wonder that I ever got anything completed while my own children were babies.

The first of our Mothering Sunday services was challengingly augmented by the obligato digestive processes of a small baby  but as we were looking at a reproduction of a painting by Rembrandt which showed Mary bare breasted having fed her replete baby and which was clearly meant to prompt the viewer to consider the humanity of the Holy Family, this all seemed unremarkable and relevant ( if nevertheless, quite amusing).

Unusually and interestingly Joseph is here depicted as a doting father, bending with concern over Mary and Jesus. Poor Jospeh, painters never really knew what to do with him, so you often have to hunt around a painting before you find him – variously he’s to be found half visible behind a classical pillar, half way up or down a staircase, tucked away in a corner or half hidden behind a tree – the half says it all really. ( I will link to this painting in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich tomorrow – the clocks have just gone back for the start of British Summer Time and I’m feeling the reduction in size of my day – albeit a Sunday.)

Ox eye daisy (hand embroidered) for patchwork altar frontal project, Ipsden Church

Common field poppy (hand embroidered) for patchwork altar frontal project, Ipsden Church