Ipsden altar frontal: embroidered viburnum (Viburnum sieboldii ‘Seneca’
The week has flown by – yes, time has definitely speeded up – as we’ve spent seemingly unproductive days showing removal firms round the house for quotes, taken snatched coffee in people’ s gardens as borrowed books were returned and even indulged in laziness for almost a whole day as we lingered over coffee, lunch and then tea in another local garden. Sorting out and sifting through possessions has filled in any gaps of time, leaving very little over for work on the altar frontal, A bit of a break has, however, been quite a good thing as I now return to it with a new surge of joy in my heart to be sewing again and less pressure as I have most definitely missed the somewhat random deadline I’d set myself. The problem now is to keep up some sort of momentum with the quilt at a time when doing other things exerts a siren call. Where only a few days ago I’d felt guilty at NOT having the altar frontal on my knee, now I feel even more guilty when I do … Oooooh, the inextricable complexities of the human psyche.
Ipsden altar frontal: embroidered viburnum (Viburnum sieboldii ‘Seneca’
Fortunately, I do, however, have a backlog of embroidered flowers (and even biscuit recipes) to offer up to the blog. This little shrubby spray I began embroidering thinking it was a hydrangea but as the flowers progressed I realised the shape of the little florets was much more like a viburnum – although not quite like either the one in the vicarage garden or that over the fence in our neighbours’ garden (which in all honesty has not been looking well for some time).
Viburnum rhytidophyllum in Ipsden vicarage garden
My viburnum is most like Viburnum sieboldii ‘Seneca’. At church a few weeks ago I asked round the gardeners in the congregations if anyone had one of these so I could photograph it in near full bloom. One person misheard me and said firmly that she wouldn’t have anything poisonous in her garden – I think she thought I’d said ‘laburnum’ and another said she hadn’t got one but really wanted one. On the laburnum tack, another cheerfully described how as children she and her siblings had played with laburnums and even made ‘tea’ with the flowers (little as they were, they knew that all parts of the laburnum were poisonous) though they never actually drank the tea. Well, hooray for that. With a heart often heavy with rebellion against today’s health and safety nanny state, even I was stunned to near silence by this (so too was her husband for whom this seemed to be news after well over 50 years of marriage).
Some varieties of viburnums are hard to deeply love with white flowers on the dirty side of the spectrum and dry looking ill-shaped leaves and while some fragrant forms can be irresistible, especially the winter flowers, others have leaves which can vary from outright foul-smelling to bacon-scented when crushed (although describing bacon as having a scent rather than a smell perhaps confuses the issue). The viburnum in the vicarage garden is very middle of the road with not much of any sort of smell and though pretty when in full bloom, quickly goes over to a sort of tea on the tablecloth weariness. It does, however, thrive on our chalky soil and as such should appear on the altar frontal. Its berries are very pretty.
8 Comments
Hello Mary… sounds as though you are getting there without too many urgent last minute things you have forgotten and which need immediate attention! Wonderful that you can now take a little time to work on this little embroidery for the altar frontal. The colours are strong against the black. I think it is the white petals and to me show sturdiness and strength by their creator and that is something that we all need and something those lucky people gazing at the flowers will have pause to think about.
Best as ever. Lydia
Well, it’s the old swan idea – slightly serene on top, lots of paddling like billyo below. Still some furniture culling to do, including getting rid of things we’d quite like to keep. I try to save the evenings for embroidery.
Thank you, Lydia, for your kind comment on the viburnum.
It’s astonishing, sometimes, to hear of the childhood adventures our parents survived without so much as a scratch, isn’t it!
It is a wonder how anyone survived when you consider all the health and safety they didn’t know they should have been contending with! What I loved was my friend’s absolute common sense that she and all her fellow tea makers understood completely that their brew wqs poisonous and on no account should actually be drunk!
‘Stitching mends the soul’ and it’s so true. We all need some time to mend on our busiest days.
Yes, Jane, stitching is always very calming – well, perhaps more so with no deadlines!
Ah yes, the guilty when/ guilty when not chestnut, it’s a slippery balance. I am so lookimg forward to seeing this massive project finished (as I am sure tou must also be!) x
Real break in proceedings now as I have the quilt but can’t remember where I packed the couple of rows of hexagons that are now ready to be added on!
We have been a month solidly packing and look forward to another few weeks unpacking – embroidery sounds wonderfully relaxing, but very distant