All the pretty little horses

Some 15 years ago I had an idea to embroider a blanket for Brigid using a drawing she had done of horses. I sent for some cashmere blanketing from the Geelong Blanket Company and it has sat in my stash ever since. 

I've never quite given up the project. When I mentioned this a few weeks ago Brigid said she could use a blanket to wrap around her - so I dug it out and got to work.The concept was to use the words of the lullaby around the edge of the blanket - When you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little horses, dapples and greys, pintos and bays, all the pretty little horses - then to embroider the horses fanning out across the blanket, beginning with somewhat realistic colours, then moving into 'prettier' colours.

I managed to get the wording around the edge using a water-soluble pen and a ruler. The wool isn't great for taking pen.

I made the words a bit larger than I had first envisaged in order to keep them clear - but also to space them right around the blanket . 

(These photos were taken in poor light with limited angles. Apologies for poor quality.)

I began with the intention of using wool thread in shades of blue - even went to Create in Stitch and bought 13 skeins of Cascade House threads in blue through to teal. It was only when I had worked the first side in Quaker stitch during our election weekend that I realised I had picked the colours of a political party and a very successful group of independent candidates. 

This didn't seem appropriate in the heat of an election, so I modified my plan, working the full the next side into greens, then yellows and finally reds. 

In retrospect the colour change seems unnecessary - but it's a better result. While the Quaker stitch does show through on the other side, it was easy to stitch only part-way through the wool using a hoop, not leaving threads on the back.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been possible with the horses.

I figured printable Solvi was the easiest method of transferring the patterns since pen doesn't work so well on the wool. I got two sets of Brigid's drawings on each sheet, and printed 6 sheets. I began with 'dapples and greys' The photograph doesn't show the dapple very well, but it is there.

The Solvi proved a bit tough to stitch through. I also don't like having a barrier between my hands and the fabric. After I'd stitched half a dozen horses I figured I was familiar enough with the shape to try another method.

I glued a paper printout of each horse on to a piece of plastic cut from a milk bottle, then cut each one out.

This gave me three firm templates to trace around. It also means I can reverse the direction of the horse.

While the water-soluble pen doesn't give a fine line on the wool, it is enough for me to follow with the help of the firm template.

This has proved much quicker, easier and more flexible to work with.

The 36 drawings printed on the Solvi sheets have not been wasted. After the initial 9 horses were in place I needed to layout the rest across the blanket and have used the Solvi horses to achieve this.

I could cut them out with the backing on and move them around until I had what I wanted then remove the backing and stick them down. This allows me to remove them one at a time, replace with a drawing and embroider.  I think the adhesive will hold. If not, safety pins.

I'm still contemplating how to treat the back. I will need to cover the back of the embroidered horses. If I back the blanket with fabric I will need to quilt it down. I could do that by hand-stitching around each horse outline. An alternative I am considering is appliqueing a wool-felt piece over the back of each horse.  There's plenty of time to figure this out - I have 26 horses to embroider!