Isobel's bands from Italy and Japanese Embroidery

 Sometime when I am working on a piece, it goes more slowly than I want it to. I am enjoying the process of stitching and need to be patient with the rate of growth. This is one of two bands of Reticella that I am doing. For some reason Reticella has never been my favorite embroidery technique. My friend Diane Clements was a master of Reticella and she talked me into doing Reticella several times and now I am so glad that I did. Using 17th century patterns to design my own bands has been fun but a real challenge. I have also used some techniques from books that I bought in Italy. It is growing and I am pleased with the way that it is looking. It will look so much better when I can take off the paper pattern and finish off all of the stray threads.

I have been working my way through the steps of Japanese Embroidery very slowly. I work on it an hour a day when I can. The braid changes from purple to green and finally to orange and will end up with gold thread embroidered on top of the silk. I have been busy putting in the base threads for the cloud areas of the fan and the pine trees. The orange threads are twisted and ready to stitch.

Isobel Lyon reticella band

I just finished this band on my Isobel Lyon sampler. Reticella is not my favorite form of needlework but I bought some fun books in Italy when I went to Burano  to the lace museum. I used  a couple of the reticella techniques in this band.  I like that way that it turned out and it certainly gave me plenty of repeats so that I could practice and get better.
I am really having fun working on creating my version of a 17th century whitework band sampler.

I have discovered that this white on white embroidery attracts almost like a magnet every stray red or dark colored fiber floating in the room . I learned to keep a pair of very fine tweezers handy to pluck off those pesky little colored fibers as they got stitched into the work.

I am about three-quarters of the way finished but have a couple of really open reticella areas at the bottom that are going to be a challenge.

Life and Embroidery

Many of my ancestors are from Scotland. We can seem to be a rather stern, taciturn clan with the sound of bagpipes in our mind and the lilt of the language in our ears.
Much of what shapes our lives is inherited from our ancestors through genetics but more so by the family traditions and ways of looking at things that we absorb in our families. My Father was a most modest man who had great talent in many areas. He oil painted, carved birds, and created jewelry among other things. He and my Mother are the reason that I am open to trying new things and the attitude that I can create what I can imagine. The things of this world will one day turn to dust but what he gave me will be part of me forever. In December he left us, quietly and without much fuss just like he wanted but the hole in my life is giant. My parents are so much a part of me and I have been so lucky to have both of them so long that although I can no longer see him, he is not gone forever and I shall see him again. He painted this wonderful desert scene and among all of his painting it is the one that hangs where I see it as I stitch.

My Mother's father was from Scotland and she has always loved thistle. I stitched this piece for her to give to her at Christmas. It is stitched with wool thread with just a touch of metallic gold.

 From my Father's Scottish side of the family comes the name of a new piece that I am working on. It is a 17th century whitework band sampler named Isobel Lyon. Isobel is in my father's direct line from Burntisland, Fife. This band is a technique sometimes called Lacis. It is form of lace in which many of the threads are cut out and the remaining threads form the base for weaving and dove's eyes. Isobel is the Grandmother of Kathrin, so it fits in the narrative of the story of Katherin's kist, the embroidered casket.

 I have added a small but fun piece to my needlework tools. This rosewood thimble with its pewter bee is just for decoration but looks great on the shelf with the other more useful tools.

Delaware Inspiratons

This sampler is A Delaware Inspiration by Theresa Baird of Heart's Ease Exampler Workes.
I started stitching it last January as part of a stitch along for the Swan Sampler Guild. It is stitched on 40 count Pearled Barley by Lakeside Linen with a variety of silk threads. Some of them like Gloriana and Belle Soie were overdyed and others were just a single color.
Theresa sent us a post with the section that we were to work on for the next month. Some months it was relatively easy to get the stitching finished but others not so much. Sometimes life does get in the way of embroidery. I did leave out a couple of motifs, a fox and the holly leaves but did stitch the blue chickens that I was not sure that I liked when I started. The longer I stitched, the more the blue birds seemed to fit.
I just sent off a new pattern to Kelmscott for release later so this has been a productive period although I have spent more time at my parent's doctors that I wanted.
Now to decide what I want to start next........

Summer and Needlework Finishes

Somehow this summer has flown by at lightening speed. It got filled up with trips and projects and just the day to day stuff of life, but piled one on top of the other in overflowing time consuming bunches of too much.
Ever had a time when you felt like you were spinning so fast that you might explode into thousands of tiny pieces. When we were children there was a spinner on the playground that if you got it going fast enough it would fling you off the edge.

 That is how it has been. I had a one month period of time when I was home only 2 complete days out of 30. The activities were all fun, a trip to Alaska, time at the cabin, a class and a quilting retreat, but spacing a bit further apart would have been better.
I did get a lot of stitching done at the cabin and even some on the trip so I have some pieces to share with you, so I'll try to catch up with some of the things that I have been doing.

Here are ones that I have been working on for several years.

I finished the small bits of the Hardanger Chatelaine many years ago but never quite got to the band until now.  The design is by Janice Love. I really like the green color of the linen and thread.




This over one piece is from a William Morris design called the Strawberry Thief. It will end up being finished as an ornament. Here's hoping that it doesn't take as long to do that as it took to stitch it.










The final long term embroidery project is from Trish Burr. It is a daisy that is done in surface embroidery.
It was fun to do and I like how it turned out. The way that the colors blend is quite lovely.

Our small quilt group has been working on a really fun quilt by Lori Holt. We love most of the squares but I wanted to add a few of my own. I enjoy doing sampler quilts because all of the squares are different. Here is the  original quilt and one of my squares. I decided that I needed a beehive so here is my design.                    

 

While we were quilting and shopping we went to Spring City to one of my favorite places. Joe Bennion does the most amazing pottery. The glazes just glow and the forms are elegant. I bought a couple of new pots from him.

 

 

I needed to do some revisions on a piece that I did for a fund-raiser a number of years ago and finally got them done. This is called Forgive the Follies and eventually should be available through Kelmscott Designs. It has some fun elements so I'm glad that it is finished again.

The most recent class that I took was from Betsy Morgan. She designed and taught a piece for the Swan Sampler Guild that features motifs from samplers with ties to Utah. It is called Pioneer School Girl Etui. The stitching is fun but not very complicated so it stitches up fast but the finishing did take more time than I thought it would, but was worth it. I added a few more pieces to the set to fill up the boxes. I used designs from the same book that Betsy used for my smalls. I have always liked the antique sets with the measuring tape, waxer, thimble and emery that match, so decided to add those and a needlebook to the etui.

 I do have a few more projects that I am working on so although things have slowed down, I am making progress.

Katherin is finished

She is finished!!!! Katherin is dressed. I was able to finish sewing her dress yesterday and today I  put the lace on it and dressed her. All of her clothes are sewn and embroidered by hand. Her dress is pale gold taffeta and the lace is hand made bobbin lace. I was able to purchase some lace fragments several years ago so I could cut them up to use for her collar, sleeves and cuffs.
As much as possible as I made her clothes, I  used historical patterns and techniques. However when I was putting her dress together that would not work. Pins were used to pin parts of the bodice to the stomacher and also fasten the skirt in place. Since pins that tiny do not exist, I assembled her dress with needle and thread. I have enjoyed all of the study, embroidery and the sewing that it took to put her together.

New projects are in the planning stage to do more things for my 17th century casket and accessories.

Aunt Helen, Katherin and collecting

In the past I have collected a number of things. I have a nice collection of sewing tools. This is a small wall cabinet that features some of them.

I started collecting years ago when they were very hard to find. My favorite material is mother of pearl but most of my things are bone and ivory.  I have a nice assortment of white on white embroidery, mostly for study and inspiration.
One thing that I had not collected was samplers. I love to look at them and stitch them but knew that the prices of the ones that I most admired were way out of my budget. On day a few months ago, this darling lady came into work and wanted to know what a couple of her red work samplers were worth. We looked them up on the internet (what did we ever do pre-google) and found that they were not that valuable. She was concerned because although precious to her, her family didn't care about them at all. I was able to purchase this one from her. Her Aunt Helen had stitched it in 1898. At first I thought it is not very old - like the samplers from the 1600 or 1700's, but then realized that it is over 100 years old.  I thought that it was so much fun that as I studied it, I decided to start charting it to reproduce. I then did an adaptation of it so stitchers can add their name and some period appropriate motifs to make it their own.  Kelmscott will be releasing it in May for retail sales.

Here is just part of the new part of the pattern.

 

 

Katherin's wardrobe has been growing slowly. I had finished the embroidery and made up the two pieces, the petticoat and the stomacher. Now I only needed to finish the dress. At this point I sort of came to a standstill because I had to think things through before I could go any further. Just how was I going to fasten the stomacher to the dress? If this were a real dress and all its parts, then they would be pinned together as the lady was getting dressed. Not having pins quite small enough to do the job, I had come to halt. As much as possible as I have been working on the clothes, I have used fabrics, patterns, techniques and designs that were period appropriate. Sewing all of the clothing by hand with silk and linen really added to the overall look that I wanted. At this point however, I decided to sew the stomacher to the sides of the dress and then sew the skirt onto the bodice.  Having made that decision, it was time to make a mock-up for fitting and to create a pattern. I started with the same dress pattern that I had used for the corset and altered as necessary to fit over all of the layers of clothes that she was already wearing. The bodice is lined with a very thin china silk and sewn with size 100 silk sewing thread. I gauged the sleeves so that the gathering looks like it should and sewed 26 very tiny eyelets down the back for  lacing the dress up along the back. It still needs the lace sewn along the edge of the sleeve and around the neck but the construction is finished. I was able to purchase some fragments of hand made lace to use on Katherin's dress. The scale of the lace makes it look like the heavy lace that was used at the time. The skirt is next, then the lace, ribbons and the finishing details.