Happy Dance! - D is for Drum!

I still hear the snares in the square
Colours ablaze in the evening
The air was still
Down the stormy hill
It's good to be young and daring

Beat the drum
Beat the drum
Like a heartbeat
Lonely and strong
Beat the drum

Design: D is for Drum

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Threads: DMC

Fabric: 28 count evenweave, cream

Stitches: Half cross stitch, backstitch

I've finally finished this block! I think I was dithering over it because of the big changes I made. It seems ridiculous, but I wasn't hugely confident that my modifications would work, but now it is complete, I'm pretty pleased.

This block as charted was very patriotically American. I'm not American, and neither is The Hermit. He's not wildly patriotic in a Canadian or British way either (dual national...), and so any modifications I felt had to reflect my own heritage. My father is English, my mother is Scottish, and as it was my mother who taught me needlecrafts, it was fairly obvious what I'd choose (sorry dad!).

The flag was relatively simple (one of the reasons I chose the Scottish flag, not the British Union Jack!). The Bald Eagle became a Golden Eagle, just by subbing one of the existing colours in. There are quite a number of Golden Eagles in Scotland, although I've not been fortunate enough to see them in the wild. The design in the shield of the drum took more thought - I could repeat the flag motif, but I thought that a little dull. And then I thought about the Lion Rampant, the symbol of Scotland. Could I really design something that looks quite complex and make it so small and yet distinguishable? The answer is yes, with the aid of a computer design programme! It took quite a while, but eventually, I came up with something I was happy with.

This is certainly a very individual block now!

And seeing as I've had the song whose lyrics are written above in my head as I've stitched, I thought I'd add a bit of Runrig too. Runrig are one of my favourite Scottish bands, even though the lead singer in the clip below has now been replaced by a Canadian ;o)

Prairie Schooler SAL Update

I'm still working on this - not much, to be honest, because I'm working on my own freebie January Biscornu and Fob - and I had to take a break to do a bit of re-design ...

So far, I've been lucky - my borders have matched up first time on each block - hope this continues!

Slow progress... the colours on these pictures aren't great because of the artificial light - the low energy fluorescents give a very yellow cast...

This next picture shows the first change I've made - the eagle is now a Golden Eagle, and not a Bald Eagle. Apart from the fact that in the UK, we don't have Bald Eagles, I'm afraid I can't take them seriously - too much Muppet Show when I was young! Basically, I've swapped the colour of the eagle and the arrow - so this block with have less 3371 than most of the other blocks, but I don't think it will throw the balance off too much.

The other amendments I'm going to make are to put a Scottish flag in the box, and a Lion Rampant in the shield - these are all charted out, just need to be worked now!

Prairie Schooler SAL

I've not had a lot of time for stitching over the last few days as I've had work and Uni stuff piling up. This is where I'm at with D is for Drum, the next letter I'm working on for the Prairie Schooler ABC SAL. I have to confess this is my least favourite of the designs. It's just so very American and flag wavingly patriotic, and I'm not. I wish designers would realise that they sell to international markets ... Anyway, I have been working with my design software and have come up with some amendments. The flag is going to be a Scottish saltire, the drum will have a Lion Rampant in the shield (and that took some doing!) and the Bald Eagle will change species and become a Golden Eagle.