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Northanger Abbey, the Agony and Grandeur of Backstitch, and a Phantom

 

Photo by Gwen King on Unsplash
Have you ever picked up a book so good that you couldn’t bear to put it down? That was me recently with Northanger Abbey. I finished it in about three days, but that’s not a testament to my reading speed (I read at a snail’s pace). It was with me at meals, was with me as I dozed off at night, and was with me in every spare moment I had throughout the course of my day. I had never read it before or watched an adaptation of it. But I did know some things about it that intrigued me, so that, plus the fact that it was written by one of my favorite authors, made me decide to give it a try. It was fantastic. For those three days, my thoughts were like this (spoiler alert, just skip this list if you haven’t read the book yet):
  • Catherine, you’re adorable.
  • Henry Tilney is great, but yikes, I don’t like the General.
  • Thorpe, you’re actually the worst.
  • Udolpho this, Udolpho that.
  • Catherine, get it together.
  • Why did I wait so long to read this?
November has great weather for reading a Gothic novel, so if you want something like that before we leap into Christmas, I highly recommend Northanger!

Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney-- and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill.
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

It was a dark and... oops, wrong book. It looks like a dark but non-stormy night here in my Q-Snap, where you can see the moon and her lovely backstitched face.

It’s a cliche, but wow does that backstitch make this chart pop! Up until this point, the backstitch has mostly been invisible due to the black fabric. But against this yellow floss, it’s just amazing. Look at that nose! Her eye! The needle I’m using for the backstitch is really sharp; it reminds me of Desperaux’s sword. I’ve accidentally stabbed my poor finger so many times. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to backstitching the cat. But I'm such a seasonal stitcher that even the thought of stitching on this Halloween chart in November is making my eye twitch. Autumnal charts? Yes. Halloween charts? Definitely not. So, with that, I’ll tuck her back into her project bag until next September. Here's what she looked like when I started her two months ago:
I thought about stitching on Aurora next, but it’s been so cold here at the Castle. In the end, I couldn’t stand the idea of making Aurora trade the sunny waters of Portofino for this chilly November air. Instead, I’m going to give Medieval Menagerie her time in the Q-Snap.
Medieval Menagerie by Fox and Rabbit Designs

My plan is to stitch on Menagerie until the Winter Solstice, at which time my no doubt frozen fingers will start stitching on Nikolai again. Here’s how far I got last time I was working on Nikolai:
Odds & Ends

Happy stitching!

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