I began the last of my RSN modules for the Diploma up in Durham. At the same time, as that finishes, I decided to start the City and Guilds Level 3 certificate with Stitchbusiness. Glutton for punishment!
Having trawled the internet and all my books for inspiration, I decided I'd do my own design. So, belatedly, I will celebrate the Jubilee and my completing the Diploma (hopefully) with a sampler of flowers of the UK countries-rose, thistle, shamrock and daffodil, with a crown in the middle for good measure. Turning those into stylised drawings was trauma enough sizing etc, then I had to lay it all out on the linen, 36 count by the way.
The first thing was to set the position of the drawn border. Again lots more counting. The design is stitched onto the linen in a coloured thread similar to the way I did with the blackwork.
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| Design tacked on |
Once everything was laid out I could start thinking about stitching -phew.
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| Pulling threads for drawn thread work |
Drawn thread work means just that, removing thread from the fabric. Thankfully, I'd counted it alright, so when it came to the corners, it met correctly. The cut threads are woven in and the border hemmed. It was amazing how delicate and fluffy the individual threads are when you think of how fine and strong linen fabric is.
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| Thank goodness they match! |
Then, at long last I started making the design 'appear' on the fabric.
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| Diagonal cross filling |
The brief specifies a number of pulled thread stitches, on top of these I will work some surface embroidery.
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| Single faggot stitch |
At least I am underway!
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