Saturday 6 February 2010

Tiny toes and Legendary throws





It's hard to believe that we moved to our new house in August and here we are in February and this is only my second blog post since the move !

Our new Home has take up most of our time. There has been a lot of renovating and sorting out needed and Thankfully we are nearing the end of phaze 1 of our building work.
Although we are still limited to a few rooms we thought it was time that we had some visitors.

For the past week we have been delighted to share our house with my husbands twin brother his gorgeous wife, our three little niece's and our one and only nephew.

They travelled from Wales by ferry and arrived on St. Brigid's day. Hannah brought me a beautiful hand woven St. Brigid's cross. Made from reeds. These crosses are traditionally woven each year on the 1st of February, ( the beginning of Spring) and are said to protect a house from fire. The cross made the previous year is either stored in the roof or burned. They resemble corn dollies. If you would like to make one there is a tutorial here.






I've always had a fascination for the Legend of Brigid. Both the Celtic and Christain and how the two have been combined over the years. Brigid has always been associated with the cleverness and strength of women, Patron Saint of Midwives, babies and Crafters.

The story of Brigid's Cloak is by far my favourite. You can read it here.
I've had it in my mind that this tale would lend itself to a beautiful painting or illustration, perhaps even some type of applique. When googling I found this print by Barrie Maguire, the other paintings in this Irish Quilt Series are amazing.



You can read Barries Blog here. While you are there take a look at his Irish Quilt Kit.


4 comments:

mayaluna said...

How I've missed you! I love those toes, too. I'm excited to go follow the links about Brigid, the images are beautiful.

anamama said...

Lovely picture and lovely feet. I wonder who they belong to? Want to hear more about the house renovation. Hope you all are well. XXX

urban craft said...

I love how you used the toes for your banner header. So sweet.

Barrie said...

Hi Red,
I was pleased to see your reference to (and credit given for) my Irish Quilt paintings. Glad you like them. And I enjoyed your blog very much.

My question is: where did you get that photo of all those toes? It's WONDERFUL. For me it was one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" moments. It's a great idea for a future Irish Quilt painting. But I don't want to step on anyone's toes (no pun intended). What's your point of view?
Barrie