What's In A Quilt - The Green Man - Part 1: Cross Stitch

Many years ago some friends in Norfolk, UK, introduced me to the Green Man. This architectural feature can be found in many churches in East Anglia, although it is not unique to the UK. 

There are various thoughts about what the Green Man actually symbolises. Many believe it to be a symbol of rebirth and the ever-changing seasons. Others speculate that the village craftsmen who helped build the churches wanted to add their own 'stamp' or even a bit of pagan mischief, especially as these Green Men are often well hidden. e.g. under pews and high up in the ceiling.

Read more about the Green Man on Wikipedia.

My friends and I would go on excursions and visit small village churches to look for Green Men in the masonry, wood carvings and roof bosses. 

Some faces are grotesque, others charming. The most well-known and best-loved, and in my opinion, the most beautiful, is the roof boss in Norwich Cathedral Cloisters. In fact, it is so adored it has lent its features to postcards, posters and cross-stitch kits. I made this one MANY years ago.

I was then commissioned to make a small quilt in 2005. After painting the face, the leaves were appliquéd with various pieces of fabric suitable for leaves, such as batik, marbled fabric and printed greenery. All of them are in the shape of oak leaves. The quilting in the border is also of oak leaves.

Making this quilt was such fun I wanted to make a larger quilt for myself. I decided to make 15 blocks of basically the same Green Man, where each block is worked with a different technique, e.g. Trapunto, Crazy Quilt, Hexagon...

Today I will start telling the stories of these blocks with the Cross-Stitch block:

I used the chart from the kit above, and DMC stranded floss left over from other projects. It is probably the block that required the most time to make.

To be continued...