Stitch Count: 101 x 101 each side
 
Model stitched with one thread over two on Weeks Dye Works 36 count Confederate Grey.
 
With threads by Weeks Dye Works: Caper, Carolina Cecil, Concord, Loden, Onyx, Red Rocks
 
Conversion to DMC included with the pattern.
 
Model was filled with Sheep's wool.
 
The damage done to the landscape in Flanders during the First World War greatly increased the lime content in the surface soil, leaving the poppy as one of the few plants able to grow in the region. Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae wrote a poem in May of 1915 called “In Flanders Fields” which reads:
 
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
 
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
 
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields".
 
As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in efforts to raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the Remembrance Poppy becoming one of the world’s most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.

This is my small, simple tribute, which I hope and pray will be a comfort for those left behind, as well as a project that will stir hearts to remember. Beth Twist.