Tag: Thistle Threads
The Floral Glove Needlecase is Finished!
Floral Glove Needlecase Finished
At long last, after much trial and tribulation, and after completely shredding my fingers because no matter how hard I try I simply cannot use a thimble, I have finally completed the finishing on the Floral Glove Needlecase.
I’m very pleased with it, and not just because it is finished. It is my first attempt at “historical embroidery”, the first time I have used many of the techniques, and the assembly of the final piece involved my bête noire, glue.
Textures In Floral Glove
The finishing has been full of little details, the spangles decorating the fabric, the gold lace edging the two cuff pieces, the gold-and-spangle edging we added to the silk ruffle. Then the gold twist suggesting the fingers on the hand of the glove, and two rows of gold cord covering the join between the upper and lower pieces.
I love the variety of textures in this piece, the silk thread, the purls, pearl purls, lizardines and spangles. Then there’s the ultrasuede (another material new to me!) and the silk ruffle, and the brocade inside.
Closeup Of Finishing
And I’m only about six months late in finishing it, after all!
I keep looking across at it, and thinking “Did I do that? Really?”
Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – More Gold!
More Goldwork On The Sampler
I’ve been doing more work on the metal thread embroidery on the Spot Sampler. The photograph shows (top to bottom) Braid Stitch, Cable Chain Stitch, and Heavy Chain Stitch.
I’ve used the real metal thread and the Japanese needle for all of them, which may have been a mistake. At the very least, the Japanese needle is a tool that I’ve not got to grips with, and which has had unanticipated side-effects on my technique!
As you can see, Heavy Chain Stitch worked beautifully. There are only a couple of places where the thread has broken and shows the core, and it has created a beautifully smooth and glimmering line.
With the Cable Chain Stitch, I think I need more practice in keeping the tension correct when using a “stab-stitch” technique, which is necessary because Japanese needles are short. This stitch is one of my favourites, but it was actually quite a struggle here, precisely because I couldn’t take up a piece of fabric on the needle as I usually do.
This was even more the case with the Braid Stitch. In fact it is worse than that. It wasn’t clear when I was stitching it, but now I see this section enlarged in the photo, it’s pretty clear that I’ve actually got myself into a dreadful tangle with a couple of my braid stitches. I need to pick up my practice cloth, fish out all my books, and try again. And yet I know I can work this stitch beautifully – I worked it on the logo for the Teddy Bear Cot Blanket, and for the Prince’s Bow on the Persian Fantasy!
Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Beginning the Gold on the Spot Sampler
Interlaced Ladder Stitch In gold Thread on the Spot Sampler
I finished the silkwork on the Spot Sampler some time ago, but then ran into a problem, largely one of priorities. There have been so many other things I fancied trying, and so I’ve been working on the Amarna Map, the Christus Natus Est Panel, and a whole host of others. I’ve also been feeling just a bit jumpy about the real metal threads, and wanted to wait until I was feeling settled enough to read the instructions and make sense of them.
I have at last made a start, though. I even managed to thread my Japanese needle with thread from the Real Metal Thread Pack that arrived in the post a few weeks ago. Perhaps the practice thread I was using was quite simply fractionally too thick for the eye of the needle.
I started with Interlaced Ladder Stitch – which wasn’t necessarily the best or easiest starting point, but it is area number one on the chart! I’m a little disheartened that the gold thread has broken up quite as much as it has, here, but I’m leaving it there for now to act as a basis for comparison as I do other stitches. I’m going to try using even shorter lengths, and maybe even use a stiletto or similar tool to keep loops open while I pull the thread through.
Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Update on the Tudor Pincushion
First Stage Of Border
I’m making reasonably good progress with the Tudor Pincushion which is part of the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass. The silkwork was finished a while ago, and now there are several different isolated stitches, and a continuous border.
Silver Guilloche Close Up
I’m not using the real metal thread for this. I rather like the rich, vibrant colour of this thread, wrapped around a cotton core, and as I am planning to create a sort of winter “corner decoration” using all of my historical embroidery pieces, there is something positive to be said for the idea of using as many different shades of gold and silver as I can to create a really rich, varied impression.
Border Close Up
The small sections of silver Guilloche Stitch have worked well, although I still have reservations about my gold Spider’s Web stitches, especially when I look at close-up photos of them!
The border is a Guilloche Stitch variation worked on a Ladder Stitch base. As it turned out, I didn’t get quite the right number of rungs on the ladders, so rather than being a neat continuation of the Guilloche Stitch, the corner elements are rather improvisatory.
Tudor Pincushion - Almost Finished
This doesn’t worry me. At the moment, I am still waiting for the instructions for the central ornamental stitch, and if, by the time I have that stitch, I’ve decided that I really must redo it, I will do so then. By that time I will be still more practised at working with metal threads, and it should go more swiftly and easily.
In the meantime, I can go on to play with more new stitches, and even, perhaps, start work on the real metal threads to add them to the Spot Sampler!
Tudor And Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Month Fourteen
Plaited Braid Stitch In Pearl Cotton
The Plaited Braid Stitch was one of the reasons I wanted to do this course. There are instructions in at least half of my books on embroidery, and I’ve watched Tracy Franklin demonstrate the stitch. I even spent a whole day practising it at one of her courses. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, and frustratingly, I never felt I knew what I was getting wrong.
Consequently, when I sat down to tackle this month’s Stitch, I was expecting frustration and fury to reign. I started with Pearl Cotton, thinking that I would be less fretful about errors if I was not conscious of using an expensive thread. I watched the animation first, and although you can see that the first inch of my practising got very tangled up, I’m sure that it helped.
Plaited Braid Stitch In Gold
As I’ve repeatedly mentioned in my posts about this course, I’ve become acutely aware that the question of scale is critical to the success of some of these stitches. My first effort in pearl cotton was at too large a scale, and the thread floats were too floppy. In the case of the second trial, I reduced the size of the stitch, and suddenly found it coming together, which gave me some confidence that I was beginning to understand the structure of the stitch. The tension was still a little slack, but all in all, it was beginning to make sense.
So then I found a piece of scrap linen, and started playing with gold thread. Again the two rows are at slightly different scales, but now I really feel that I am going to master this stitch.
I also think I’ve cracked the problem of why the vast number of books I have on the subject don’t help. With the honourable exception of The Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, by Yvette Stanton of White Threads, they all use the same inadequate set of diagrams, presumably copied from an earlier publication. Furthermore, judging by the (slightly differing) diagrams in Tricia’s notes and Yvette’s book, they diagram the left-handed technique. Since all their other diagrams are for right-handers, these books provoke considerable confusion! Still, I now know where to go when I need to be reminded how to do the stitch, and I feel confident that with a bit of practise I will be able to pick it up any time I need to.
And I will need to. I have a few ideas buzzing around in my head, and Plaited Braid Stitch will take its’ place in them!
Floral Glove Needlecase Course
More Floral Glove Finishing Work
It’s been a long time since I posted about the Floral Glove Needlecase. For a variety of reasons I lost momentum once it came to the finishing of the piece, but I do intend to get it finished. I don’t know what I will do with it when it is finished – I can’t imagine being able to bring myself to use it! – but I will get it done (can you hear the determination in my voice?).
So, with my new-found spirit of determination, here I am, laying out various pieces while I re-read the instructions for the nth time (where n tends to infinity!) and try to work out where, precisely, I had got to…
The silk brocade gauntlet at the back has pockets for tools, and there is an ultrasuede-covered base that will keep the final piece from slipping around too much.
My next two tasks are to attach some gold lace to the brocade cuff shape, and to lay some gold couching lines on the last piece of ultrasuede to create the top surface of the glove. I’m taking it a bit at a time, because looking ahead was what stopped me in my tracks last time!
Tulip Needlework Nibble – Getting Started
Tulip Kit And Finishing Kit
My kit and finishing kit for the Tulip Slip Needlework Nibble arrived very promptly. They have obviously got all this down to a fine art, now, at Thistle Threads, because I was expecting it to be another week at least!
My Tulip Kit contains the linen and silk for the embroidery, while the finishing kit contains silk velvet for the pincushion, gimp to edge the slip, and Grecian Twist to trim the pincushion when it’s finished. The parcel also contained information about the Exhibition being supported.
Tulip Kit - Silks and Chart
I’ve said before that I colour in charts when I’m about to start on counted work. I should have explained that I don’t colour in the whole thing, or at least, not necessarily. The second photo shows the linen and silks lying on my printout of the instructions. You can see that in this case I’ve picked one colour in each section to colour in. Usually it’s best to pick one of the middle tones, because if a design is properly charted, as this one is, the dark colours will have dark symbols, and the light colours, light symbols. The coloured shade is to help make it clear which of the medium-to-light tone of symbols is which.
It is really simply there to help me find my place on the chart just at a glance, without having to take to long to check I’m still doing the right thing!
Sampler Silkwork Finished!
Sampler Silkwork Finished!
At last I have finished the silkwork on the sampler for the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass. I don’t have much patience with counted work – I just keep doing it occasionally, as a salutary discipline! – so I am really very pleased with myself. After all, I began stitching it – according to my post on the subject – in June last year!
I’m pleased that I persevered. It’s fascinating to see the Queen Stitches create an entirely different fabric, with a totally different surface and reflectance to the surface of the fabric itself, and the other stitches (Rice Stitch, Roman Stitch and the Bargello section) all reveal different aspects of the silk thread and provided different challenges in working them.
In fact, in the end I have enjoyed the silkwork on the sampler rather more than I expected to. It has taken me much longer than some of the other members of the course, but I’ve been working on the Piano Shawl and the Dreams of Amarna at the same time, so I think I have a good excuse!
Now I need to work out how I am going to keep track of which goldwork stitches to do where. I’ve been printing out the instructions as I go along (thank heavens!) but I now have a large folder full of the historical essays Tricia has written for each month, and another one full of the stitches. It isn’t difficult to have a single chart by my workstand as I stitch, but I think I may need to create an annotated chart for the goldwork. So far, many of the stitches have been familiar enough for me to do some of them with only the name and placement to guide me, but in other cases I know I will need to have the folder open at the instructions as well. One of these days we will have to find a house with a studio for me to work in!
Thistle Threads Fundraising Needlework Nibble
Tulip Needlework Nibble - image from Thistle Threads website
Encouraged by the success of the Needlework Nibble that supported the Museum of Costume in Bath, Tricia at Thistle Threads has launched another fundraising Needlework Nibble, this time to support the exhibition With Cunning Needle: Four Centuries of Embroidery at Winterthur Museum.
I’ve enjoyed the Glittering Snail, and the two Thistle Threads courses I’ve been following, so I’ve ordered my kit, and the finishing kit to go with it. I’ve printed out the instructions, as well.
Tricia has already reported that the fundraising is going well – about halfway to the target, thanks to the generosity of one of her readers who has matched the first thousand dollars raised. That means there are still kits available, although they are clearly moving fast.
Why don’t you join us?
Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Month Thirteen
I’ve not really been making as much progress with the silkwork on the Masterclass Sampler and Tudor Pincushion as I would like. The weather has been cold and overcast, making my best stitching spot for natural light a chilly and uninviting place. Artificial light produces a confusing glimmer on metal threads, so unless it is a particularly easy stitch, I tend not to use metal threads in the evening.
I’ve been more or less keeping up with my practice stitching, however, and this month’s stitches are Cable Chain Stitch, and Knot Stitch (also known as Braid Stitch). I enjoyed these very much, as I already know them both, and it was good to be able to add them to the practice cloth and remind myself of my repertoire.
Cable Chain Stitch
Cable chain is my absolute favourite of the chain stitches, and pops up in all sorts of projects. I used it in the Jacobean Firescreen that I’ve used as my header picture, and the Jacobean Work panel that I’ve yet to find a use for, and on the dorsal fin of the Experimental Seahorse. I’ve even used it on the Map of Amarna, in the Compass Rose. I think that it looks its best using a fairly heavy round thread, so on my practice cloth the gold is somewhat out of scale with the fabric
Braid Or Knot Stitch
Braid or Knot Stitch (not the terrifying Plaited Braid Stitch that I haven’t got to grips with yet!) is another favourite. I used it to create the Prince’s bow in the first of the Persian Fantasy Panels. I also used it for the ice cream cone part of the logo on the Frolicking Teddies Cot Blanket. I worked the stitch at two different scales, so you can see it looks a little loopy and untidy over four threads, but neatly ornate over two.