Finished cross stitch!

[merrileemakes]

I've finished my first cross stitch for the year.


Darwin Sampler 2 by Hannah Stitching Designs.


This is a quote from a letter Charles Darwin wrote to botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker about eminent naturalist, founder of the Natural History Museum of London, fraud, plagarist and unrepentant shithead Richard Owen. If you ever run out of Real Housewives to watch and need some more drama just grab a book about Darwin, Owen, Gideon Mantell and Thomas Henry Huxley.

I chose to stitch this design because I enjoy this meangirls period of British naturalists, and the quote resonates with me following some revelations I've made with my own family.

The original design is all in one colour, but I picked my own. I went with a dark green border and lighter green leaves, to represent new growth. Redish motifs on either side of the text for the fires of rebirth.

There's a lot of symbolism in cross stitch samplers. Pineapples for generous hospitality, thought they were cool (as does, apparently, God). I stitched the ladybugs mostly in red and I think they still read well, even though technically they're red with black spots.

And you'd never know unless I told you, but the middle ladybug is one stitch above where the pattern says it should be. I misscounted and then decided I was only with leaving the mistakes. Not the total embrace of mistakes I aimed for, but one step at a time I guess.

My next stitching project is a coordinating sampler with another Darwin quote.

Comments

[matsushima]

I don't know the exact context in which Darwin said this quote but, wow, it really resonates with me, too - not anyone in my family of origin (for which I am blessedly lucky) but definitely some people (a person in particular) from my past.

[merrileemakes]

Richard Owen was a horrible, cruel person who hated anyone who threatened his superiority or the status quo. He would lie about his accomplishments, steal specimens and research from others and publish them as his own. His brutality is linked to at least 2 deaths by suicide. If you want an utterly wild ride, pick up any biography about his reign of terror. Or a biography of Darwin, Gideon Mantell or Thomas Henry Huxley.

For me, the quote in this cross stitch is about my mother. She's not as awful as Owen, but that bar is on the fucking floor.

I'm glad your family of origin is free of such people.