Today I received my copy of Trish Burr's Colour Confidence in Embroidery. It's a gift from my father-in-law.
Pity I don't have a lot of time to sit and read it today, but I'll get into it soon and post a review later.
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Elizabethan Stitching
The past couple of weeks I've been doing the preliminary work on two new projects. One is the Agecroft Sweet Bag which was published in the third quarter EGA newsletter. The other is a more complex project in the same style, Thistle Threads online course called Glittering Gentleman's Nightcap. Both projects are worked with motifs based on those found on a jacket in the Victoria and Albert Museum's textile collection
( jacket 1359-1900 and also the Laton Jacket). The sweet bag is about 4" x 4" and is worked in silk threads on linen with some goldwork trim. The nightcap is 8" x 21" and worked in silk threads, gilt silke twist and three different types of gold threads. ( I think I'll work the bag first!)
Tracing the pattern of the cap onto linen was a chore! The main motif is traced on the right side, but the cuff motifs have to be traced onto the back side as the fabric gets turned up when finished. Since I couldn't find my light box I had to stand at the window and hold my arm up to trace a bazillion little flowers and leaves. It took about an hour to complete the transfer. The sweet bag, by comparison, took about 12 minutes to get traced off.
More information on the sweet bag can be found on this review by Mary Corbet:
http://www.needlenthread.com/2011/04/agecroft-sweet-bag-thread-kit.html
She has pictures and a review of the thread kit put together by Access Commodities.
The Glittering Nightcap information can be found on the Thistle Threads website, here:
http://thistle-threads.com/teaching/projects/17thcentury/17thcent_nightcap.html
I'm looking forward to working with the gilt silk threads. I saw them worked in to the Plimoth Jacket at Winterthur and they're really pretty.
If I can find my camera cable I might even post photos.
( jacket 1359-1900 and also the Laton Jacket). The sweet bag is about 4" x 4" and is worked in silk threads on linen with some goldwork trim. The nightcap is 8" x 21" and worked in silk threads, gilt silke twist and three different types of gold threads. ( I think I'll work the bag first!)
Tracing the pattern of the cap onto linen was a chore! The main motif is traced on the right side, but the cuff motifs have to be traced onto the back side as the fabric gets turned up when finished. Since I couldn't find my light box I had to stand at the window and hold my arm up to trace a bazillion little flowers and leaves. It took about an hour to complete the transfer. The sweet bag, by comparison, took about 12 minutes to get traced off.
More information on the sweet bag can be found on this review by Mary Corbet:
http://www.needlenthread.com/2011/04/agecroft-sweet-bag-thread-kit.html
She has pictures and a review of the thread kit put together by Access Commodities.
The Glittering Nightcap information can be found on the Thistle Threads website, here:
http://thistle-threads.com/teaching/projects/17thcentury/17thcent_nightcap.html
I'm looking forward to working with the gilt silk threads. I saw them worked in to the Plimoth Jacket at Winterthur and they're really pretty.
If I can find my camera cable I might even post photos.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Of Thanksgiving and Jackets
We had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, and I hope yours was also pleasant. The Day was spent with family, overeating and conversing and watching a little football.
Friday, Phil and I headed down to Winterthur Museum so I could view the With Cunning Needle exhibition which currently includes the Plimoth Jacket. It's been at least 15 years since I was last there and the place has changed some, but it is still a beautiful estate with awesome gardens. (Gardens, they call them- 1000 acres of trees, shrubs and water features as well as flowers and grasses.)
The needlework exhibition was amazing. The Jacket is set up on a mannequin in a lucite box at the entry of the exhibition rooms. It's possible to get quite close to the fabric. I've been following the blog and reading some other blogs which discuss the making of the jacket, but even with photos, ...well. The print medium just does not do this garment justice. Many of the shapes are stitched with Gilt Sylke Twist, a thread developed for the jacket project. In photos, this doesn't look very impressive. It has just a hint of "not thread" to it from the gold metal. Up close and personal, the motifs stitched with this thread have a subtle shimmer of gold that adds depth and richness to the piece. Bees, pea pods and flower petals are two-dimensional. The pea pods curl open to reveal tiny peas fashioned from spiraled gold thread. I spent a good ten minutes examining the stitching on this lovely piece before I moved on to other items.
Included among these were samplers dating back to the mid-17th century, an embroidered linen sailor's suit and duffel bag from the early 1800's, counterpanes, side curtains, pockets and aprons. There was a large rug loom set up near a display of wool and linen. Nearby was a collection of linen garments which included a tiny baby bonnet made entirely of the finest linen I have ever seen. I swear it must have been 200 threads/inch or finer. The fabric looked like vellum, it was so sheer and so lacking in visible threads. There was no embroidery on this cap at all; it was just a simple bonnet with a gathered self ruffle at the brim and fine linen ribbons at the chin.
I'm hoping that Tricia Wilson Nguyen writes a book about the Plimoth Jacket, covering its inception, design, the interplay with various other crafts and suppliers, and its construction. Much of this is on the blog, but some of the photos are now missing.
Friday, Phil and I headed down to Winterthur Museum so I could view the With Cunning Needle exhibition which currently includes the Plimoth Jacket. It's been at least 15 years since I was last there and the place has changed some, but it is still a beautiful estate with awesome gardens. (Gardens, they call them- 1000 acres of trees, shrubs and water features as well as flowers and grasses.)
The needlework exhibition was amazing. The Jacket is set up on a mannequin in a lucite box at the entry of the exhibition rooms. It's possible to get quite close to the fabric. I've been following the blog and reading some other blogs which discuss the making of the jacket, but even with photos, ...well. The print medium just does not do this garment justice. Many of the shapes are stitched with Gilt Sylke Twist, a thread developed for the jacket project. In photos, this doesn't look very impressive. It has just a hint of "not thread" to it from the gold metal. Up close and personal, the motifs stitched with this thread have a subtle shimmer of gold that adds depth and richness to the piece. Bees, pea pods and flower petals are two-dimensional. The pea pods curl open to reveal tiny peas fashioned from spiraled gold thread. I spent a good ten minutes examining the stitching on this lovely piece before I moved on to other items.
Included among these were samplers dating back to the mid-17th century, an embroidered linen sailor's suit and duffel bag from the early 1800's, counterpanes, side curtains, pockets and aprons. There was a large rug loom set up near a display of wool and linen. Nearby was a collection of linen garments which included a tiny baby bonnet made entirely of the finest linen I have ever seen. I swear it must have been 200 threads/inch or finer. The fabric looked like vellum, it was so sheer and so lacking in visible threads. There was no embroidery on this cap at all; it was just a simple bonnet with a gathered self ruffle at the brim and fine linen ribbons at the chin.
I'm hoping that Tricia Wilson Nguyen writes a book about the Plimoth Jacket, covering its inception, design, the interplay with various other crafts and suppliers, and its construction. Much of this is on the blog, but some of the photos are now missing.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Oh, Boy!
I get to go to a smockers meeting today. It's about 20 miles from home, which means lots of windy roads, probably most of which will be uphill. I'm glad it was warm yesterday so that most of the snow has melted from the roads. I'm still quite wary of driving in and around Pittsburgh.
I'm looking forward to a fun afternoon with other stitchers. I'd feel better if I'd actually done ANY stitching in the past month or so, but being ill just took all the motivation out of me. I think I'll go find everything I need to start on my new reticule kit from Beverley Sheldrick. (I say new, but it's actually older than the one I finished, which still hasn't turned up in the unpacking process.)
Or, I could take my hussif kit, which matches the missing reticule, and start working on it. One of the good things about having all these unfinished (unstarted) projects is that I have LOTS of choices when I need something to work on!
I'm looking forward to a fun afternoon with other stitchers. I'd feel better if I'd actually done ANY stitching in the past month or so, but being ill just took all the motivation out of me. I think I'll go find everything I need to start on my new reticule kit from Beverley Sheldrick. (I say new, but it's actually older than the one I finished, which still hasn't turned up in the unpacking process.)
Or, I could take my hussif kit, which matches the missing reticule, and start working on it. One of the good things about having all these unfinished (unstarted) projects is that I have LOTS of choices when I need something to work on!
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