Trick or Treat Blog Hop

Welcome! Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is hosting her annual Halloween Blog Hop, and I get to join in on the fun.  My eerie, enchanting letter is

 (Eek!) 

But you are here to see some stitching, too.  I've only one cross stitch finish this year, the Frosted Pumpkin design from this year's Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue:

I started some other patterns, but then set those aside to work on a design of my own. At the end of the summer I signed up for Stitchy Box's Halloween Countdown Box -- a box of 31 stitching goodies, one to open each day of October. The loot:

The hoop is mine

About halfway through the month I got the idea of incorporating the supplies into a sampler of 25 one-inch squares, filling out some of the spots with stuff from my own stash.

The day was too gloomy for a good photo

It's not completed, but it was a blast to make, and I may do a similar thing for Christmas.

Next up in the blog hop is Needle, Pen and Sword.  Happy Halloween!

1 Year of Stitches: Week 43

Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez

Locke & Key is a comic book series about three siblings who discover mysterious keys in their ancestral home, which unlock doors with all sorts of magical properties -- giving a person wings, turning a person into an animal, fixing broken things.  As so often happens in these types of stories, there is also a demon trying to gain control of the keys for nefarious purposes whom the family must fight.

It's the kind of thing that's right up my alley, with one big exception -- the story is thoroughly in the horror genre*, not fantasy (or even its sub-category, dark fantasy), and I really don't like horror. Before starting the series I deliberately sought out spoilers to ensure it didn't have a totally depressing ending and to prepare myself for some of the events.  And still, it was a tough read. A lot of very bad things happen, some deserved and some not; the subplot involving a mentally challenged young teen was particularly stressful for me.

Despite all of that, I'm glad I read it.  It's a fascinating story, the backstory and characters are well done, the artwork is evocative, and there are cool concepts galore.  Above all, the portrayal of a family shattered by horrific events but surviving because of their love for each other was touching.

*Joe Hill is Steven King's son.

1 Year of Stitches: Week 42

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

This creepy, compelling gothic novel was the perfect read for October nights.  Margaret Lea, a bibliophile and sometime biographer, is summoned to the home of a reclusive writer who is finally ready to reveal the truth about her background -- incest, insanity, and murder set in a decaying ancestral home (the plot owes much to Jane Eyre, The Turn of the Screw, and even The Fall of the House of Usher).

Margaret's narration is at first overwritten and mannered, something I find in gothic novels no matter when they are written; I think in most cases a baroque plot is better served with plainer language. As the book progresses, however, and Margaret gets caught up in Vida Winter's story, her style settles down.  Vida's sections, on the other hand, are a treat. There is a real satisfaction in seeing this character who has written so many stories and told so many lies struggle to finally tell the truth, and to do it coherently.  In particular, the way she shifts from third person to first person plural to first person singular is crucial to understanding who she truly is (literally and metaphorically).

The novel is stripped of any extraneous material; there are no references to friends or outsiders, the world at large is barely mentioned, and descriptions of surroundings are kept to a minimum.  This not only emphasizes the claustrophobia of the stories themselves -- Margaret's and Vida's -- it adds a sense of eerie timelessness to the narrative.  Read this with a mug of cocoa and a blanket wrapped around yourself.

1 Year of Stitches: Week 41

1 Year of Stitches: Week 40

A pumpkin in bullion knots. Surely if I stitch enough leaves and pumpkins, the weather will cool down.

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

Hoffman's novel is a fictional account of the life of Pissarro's mother, particularly her controversial marriage to her deceased husband's nephew.  I was skeptical of the book and only picked it up because it's September's pick in the Inspired by Literature club, but I'm so glad I did.  Hoffman's storytelling is beautiful and evocative, and rich in cultural detail. It even incorporates a little of the magic realism that she is known for.

Although the perspective changes occasionally, most of the book is told from Rachel Pissarro's point of view. Rachel is a force of nature, enough to rival the storms that hit the island and nearly ruin the family business. She is smart, willful, and passionate, alternately willing to make sacrifices for her family and willing to defy laws, conventions, and neighbors to get what she wants. She is also a bundle of contradictions; some of those contradictions deepen her already complex character, but others are inexplicable. It's as if in some scenes -- just a few -- Hoffman wasn't quite sure who Rachel was. Nonetheless, she is a memorable character, and her sections of the book overwhelm those portions told by her first husband and her son.

Most of the story takes place on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, and Hoffman's description of life there reminded me strongly of Puerto Rico, where I was born.  In particular I was taken with the repeated motif of the flamboyant trees (flamboyán, as we called them) with their brilliant red flowers.  My grandmother (a Spanish and French woman herself, although Catholic, not Jewish) was a painter, and one of my treasured possessions is the painting she did of a Flamboyán tree on a street in San Juan:

So that was my inspiration. I embroidered my own flamboyán, and placed it in a brass frame.  I added some glass pearls for luck (like the heirloom necklace in the novel, that can bring or take away luck).

My enchanted island is suffering terribly as a result of hurricane Maria.  If you are able and inclined to do so, please consider giving to help the people.

1 Year of Stitches: Week 39

I stitched some autumn leaves, in the hope that they would bring cooler weather.