Love to Ladies Bingo - WINNER! - Congrats verajane :)

[rcperryls]

Still none for me but still for the lovely pictures and information about these ladies.

Carole

[StitchingEs]

Happy Sunday ladies!!!! As an extra treat you've got 3 numbers today which catches us up for the day I missed Good luck!!!

#17: The Letter



This is just a chart that I simply love. It has an "aged" feel to it and I'm an old romantic really so this has to be a love letter imho. It reminds me of the lettersKeats wrote to Fanny Brawne:

'Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it—make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me—write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.'

I love that it's sepia coloured and it's almost like a snapshot from her life - often it's the pictures that are taken without the subject knowing that tell the best stories or capture emotions best and I think this is a beautiful example of that and would look beautiful as a stitched piece.

#30: Last Look



I love this because it's different - it's dark, gothic, again slightly otherworldly but it's different because it's not the sort of thing I'd usually like to stitch. Something about it haunts me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Do you have a piece that haunts you?

#14: Persephone



"Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it.

Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of nature."

I believe that in Dahlig's interpretation of Persephone is when she is between states - trapped in the underworld and desperate to return to her mother, or it could be at the beginning where she's so grieved at the loss of her life on earth with her family that she yearns for the sunlight.

I started stitching this one a while ago, and I'm three pages in - I can't wait until she's complete

That's all for now.

xx

[bookknurd]

17 and 14 bring me to 4/10

[kiwirach]

17 & 30 take me to 3/10

[Squirrel]

Beautiful Persephone gives me 2/10. She is beautiful and I hope you will post some pics of your WIP on her.

The (Love) Letter is very evokative and has many stories to tell us.

Thank you for such lovely pictures and greatly thoughtful words to go with them.

[rcperryls]

#s 17 and 14 get me on board so I am at 2/10 now. Beautiful choices today too!

Carole

[StitchingEs]

Evening ladies

Here are your numbers tonight...

#4: Shalott



Of course, as I'm sure many of you guessed this is our beloved Lady of Shalott - another Waterhouse, but it's such a wonderful illustration of such an amazing poem. I must admit I like this more because I have a real affinity for Tennyson - the fact it's a Waterhouse just makes it more appealing

Here's some history for those who may not know, or just might be intrigued...

Tennyson's poem, first published in 1832, tells of a woman who suffers under an undisclosed curse. She lives isolated in a tower on an island called Shalott, on a river which flows down from King Arthur's castle at Camelot. Not daring to look upon reality, she is allowed to see the outside world only through its reflection in a mirror. One day she glimpses the reflected image of the handsome knight Lancelot, and cannot resist looking at him directly. The mirror cracks from side to side, and she feels the curse come upon her. The punishment that follows results in her drifting in her boat downstream to Camelot 'singing her last song', but dying before she reaches there.

The picture illustrates the following lines from part IV of Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott':


And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance -
With glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.


I highly recommend reading the poem in it's entirety, and if you would like to, you can do so here. More info on the poem can be found here.


#23: Forest



Yes, ladies, it's another HAED (I'm only a little bit obsessed, no, honestly, I am) Forest Light QS by Jonothon Earl Bowser - and most definitely the quick stitch version. the normal version is here but the detail the QS shows is just amazing - I love the colours and think it would make a beautiful piece stitched. Don't get me wrong here, the complete piece is fabulous, but there really is something about this QS version that I find more spectacular than the original, and the detail of it is one little part of that.

Hope you got some numbers tonight

xx

[kiwirach]

4 out of 10 now for me.

interesting to read about Shalott - am not really into poetry.

[knottylamb]

I am enjoying the paintings and needlework information very much. Loved the poem of the "Lady of Shalott". King Arthur and Camelot have always been at the top of my list of heros. And this past year to learn that my family lines are from the Morgans really topped off my cup.
I didn't put down # 4 but wish I would have. For now I have #14, 20 & 23.
Thanks,
Kathy

[Squirrel]

Both really beautiful Esme. The Lady of Shalott brought back memories of learning poetry at school - eons ago.

Sadly no numbers for me today so still on 2/10 - but hey thats ok I am enjoying all the information with each pic. .

[bookknurd]

None for me today

[Lizzieh]

Oh dear. I have come back from a few days away to discover I have 2 out of 10 but that my wish list has grown a lot!

[rcperryls]

I wasn't positive who Shallot was but she sounded familiar so I picked her. So I'm 3/10 of the way there and thank you for reminding me of a poem I always loved.

Carole

[StitchingEs]

Your numbers tonight are brought to you courtesy of my youngest daughter, Ronnie

#5 - Dreamer



This HAED is another Christophe Vacher piece. I fell in love with this the first time I saw it and it's a WIP of mine - in fact ot was the first HAED I ever bought. Because of my shoulder injury, I've not stitched for a long while, and this piece hasn't made it onto my rotation yet (I'm doing it 1 over 1, full stitches on 25 count) but I am going to get some more of it done at some point, sooner rather than later I hope. The colours in this are very similar but have a beautiful effect and what I love about Vacher's work, especially this piece is that the original was oil on canvas, and you hardly lose any of the detail. Christophe has said of his work "my personal style is influenced by old schools like the Hudson River School, The Romantics and the European Symbolists for their grandiose, theatrical scenery; my style has also been shaped by contemporary artists like Sandorfi, Beksinski, Ugarte and The Visionaries (Les Visionnaires) in France. All of these I credit for their striking visions." You can check out more of his art here.


#27: Cleopatra



If you're anything like me, this isn't the image you get in your head when you imagine the famous Egyptian Queen! But I love this rendition of her and I think this is a more realistic version of what she may have looked like in her youth. You can find plenty about Cleopatra on wiki and other places on the net and she has inspired writers and artists for centuries. Cassius Dio, a Roman senator and historian wrote:

"For she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone. Being brilliant to look upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate everyone, even a love-sated man already past his prime, she thought that it would be in keeping with her role to meet Caesar, and she reposed in her beauty all her claims to the throne."

[rcperryls]

No numbers for me today so still at 3/10, but today's selections.

Carole

[kiwirach]

one more for me, so that brings me to 5/10 with Cleopatra

lovely charts you've picked

[Squirrel]

Dreamer gave me another one so now 3/10. Very interesting chart that one.

Cleopatra is certainly different but its really good to see another version of her.

[elementaryteacher77]

Well I missed yet another BINGO sign up... ugghh ...I've got to start signing on more regularly! I am so happy to see a cross stitch themed bingo back in the mix this go around! I have lived such a sheltered cross stitch life that I always see things I have never seen before. I have never been a big HEAD fan, but these are simply stunning. I will enjoy reading about them even though I have no chance at the BINGO!

[cairee]

been on holidays fishing (caught a shark!) and found I got 5 numbers while gone! lovely pictures! love the info about them too

5/10

[bookknurd]

Still none for me and still loving this bingo!