Long a favorite Christmas song of mine, this sampler is inspired by the lyrics of “The Holly and the Ivy”. I did a little research on the carol itself, and found that it has no known author. The earliest recorded printing of the words with a melody is 1911 in “Sharp’s English Folk Carols”. A few sources claim that the lyrics originated from an old broadside printed in the early 1700’s.
There are tales from ancient British village life that there was a midwinter custom of holding singing contests between men and women. The men sang songs praising Holly for its masculine qualities, while disparaging Ivy. The women sang songs praising Ivy for its feminine qualities while disparaging Holly. The resolution between the two was under the Mistletoe. These three plants, Holly, Ivy, and Mistletoe are the most prominent green plants in British native woodlands during the winter, and for this reason, they earned the respect of early country dwellers and placed highly in their traditions.
Stitch Count: 67 x 60
Model stitched on Picture This Plus 32ct. Sand
Using flosses from Weeks Dye Works:
Havana, Grasshopper, Curry, Red Rocks
Conversion to DMC included with the chart.
Mini pompom trim "TexArkana Sage" by Dames of the Needle.
This design is now available in my etsy shop, and will be going out to my distributors and the shops on my automatic shipments list soon. If you prefer to bypass etsy and order directly through me, you can send me an email: beth@heartstringsamplery.com
2 comments:
I enjoyed reading the history. I'm always looking for pretty, quick, last minute Christmas gifts to stitch (like this).
Will you do a "prequel" ornament/pincushion of "Of all the trees that are in the wood". I do ornaments for my church choir director, and I was wondering.
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