More Couching

Here is the start of the new module – Applique.

Design tacked onto silk

Applique inspired by Baldishol Tapestry

Not a lot to show as yet, apart from the design and a few appliquéd pieces but I somehow think that this will keep me out of mischief for a wee while! The inspiration is the Norwegian Baldishol Tapestry - thought to date from about the same era as the more well known (in England!) Bayeux tapestry. Sadly only remnants remain in The Oslo Museum of Applied Art.

I am also back on the voluntary work – repairing the church furnishings. A pulpit fall that was used over Advent was noticed to be a little bit in need of repair.

Previous repair work and loose threads

Pulpit Fall

Loose threads where couching decayed

Previous repair

So it got brought home to see if I could do something with it! Only problem is…..Lent is in a fortnight . So here I am, trying to get that finished before

a)      the start of Lent and

b)      I really get busy with RSN work

Hence lack of blogs. Heh, ho back to couching………………………

Jacobean Crewel Leaf

Here is my crewel work leaf finished.

Laid and couched, fly and seeding

Long and short, chain and detached fly

Pekinese, stem and closed fly

I am quite pleased with the way it worked out, although as I said before there were one or two little niggles. I used a loose linen fabric that I had in my stash, really just any thing to practise on as this isn’t for any other purpose than my own learning experience. However, unlike the linen twill that I have used before for a number of crewel embroideries, it was a lot looser in weave and has therefore left stab holes in the fabric as I thought it might. Having said that, it did not really affect the embroidery at all. I thought the long and short might distort or the laid and couched stitches. But I hadn’t wanted to embroider just on calico.

The Renaissance wools are lovely, so soft and smooth, I’m sure they will be used again! But restricting myself to just two colours and no shades was quite tough, it certainly made me think about what stiches I was using where and their effect on the overall design.

Now to practise some applique....

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, hope you all had a good holiday. We’ve just about eaten up all the leftovers (or made soup out of them!) and are ready to start on the detox now. Yeah, don’t you love big festivals?

I’m now ready just to get back to normality – ho,ho whatever that may be!

The new project is coming along. Crewel work certainly seems to be l'oeuvre du jour. I’m already coming up against some of the problems I thought I may incur but we’ll go through those later. Suffice it to say that working just with two colours presents its own challenges! Certainly makes you think a bit.........

Raised stem stitch and bullion knots

Closed fly stitch and trellis work