Childhood Memories.

Love Stitching in Red has done a lovely post about books she enjoyed during her childhood. This one is my one survivor from my childhood though I read many more such as Wind in the Willows, many by Alison Uttley, Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton and so on. Behind that rather austere and unassuming cover in the photo above, are pages of delight. The book was written and illustrated by M.Forster Knight.

It was published in 1945 and I think I must have received it that same year. This is the only coloured illustration there is but even though the others are all in black and white they are still quite delightful.

The book is showing it's age and the pages are foxed now. It has been read and reread many times and all that love and attention has taken it's toll.

I remember being given permission by my mother to colour some of the pages if I was very careful.

The book went missing for some time and has only just surfaced again - time to refresh my memory of the story. If I am right it tells of the adventures of a grasshopper -Aldous Greenwing- and the other creatures he met on his quest to find his treasure.

As I remember, it didn't bother me that a mouse wore a frock or squirrels wore coats and I loved all the wild flowers, grasses and butterflies, as well as the story itself.

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I have made the first three of my pages for the medieval tile book. Here they are, hot off the press.

No.1 is the glue gun stamped impression coloured with brush markers and rubbed with a rub-on cream to bring up the design. I stitched strips of recycled painted gessoed pelmet vilene onto the calico page and fixed the tile on top with bronze coloured brads. These are rather like those brass paper fasteners.

No.2 is another glue gun impressed design this time held with stitches onto a piece of gessoed and sprayed calico. This was then trimmed down to size and stitched onto the page, then a raised chain band edging worked to form the border.

No.3 is a silk cast made by laying cocoon strippings onto a rubber stamp, spraying with colour and placing baking parchment on top before ironing to get the impression. This was placed onto a piece of commercial 'handmade' paper and then free machine embroidery was worked to hold it all in place.
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Nothing ever looks straight or square when I photograph it! I measured and trimmed everything to ensure that it was as square as it could be - you'll have to take my word for it!