Wattle scarf

I have. over the last seven years since doing an Ottoman Scarf class with Alison Snepp, embroidered a number of scarves. Most of these were Raffal scarves, purchased as a follow-up to Alison's class. They are woven in India from Australian wool. The Raffal story is worth reading, a successful business established by one woman using the expertise she gained from working for the Australian Wool Board, utilising Australia's fine merino and the expertise of Indian weavers.

I am not sure if Raffal are still making perfectly plain scarves, but I had a couple left from my earlier purchase, and wanted to embroider one of them as a gift for a cousin who had kindly invited me to stay during my recent trip to England. I purchased scarves in colours that reflected the Australian bush, so chose a green one, sketched out some wattle branches and got to work.







It is a little tricky embroidering on these soft, open weave scarves. They resemble original Turkish bath towels - which is why Alison Snepp chose them for her original Ottoman scarf design. This means, however, you need to take great care in stitching, not to separate the fibres.

Back

front

You also need to take care that the back is fairly neat - as scarves don't sit obligingly on one side. These considerations limit the stitches you can use.









I limited myself to French knots, stem stitch and fly stitch.

Rather than adding larger tassels to those already there, as I had done in the past, I added gold beads that sparkle. It's not too over-the-top but adds little glints as the scarf moves.









It worked - and is something that will get some use in England!

Zen mandala

For some time I had thought that Zen colouring designs would make interesting embroidery, so a couple of years ago, when Herrschner's advertised some already printed on fabric, I ordered some for me and some for my Adelaide daughter.  She got to work on hers fairly smartly, but I put them on my embroidery back-burner. In the last month or so I dug one out as a back-up 'grab and go' project. 

I had purchased a thread pack to go with it. This consisted of a range of bright perle cotton. The thickness is not marked on the label, but it is about 5 - quite thick.                                                                 My concept for this mandala was a red edge, then very roughly following the rainbow from purple into a red centre. I didn't want to plan it in detail - and I certainly didn't want to colour it in pencil first. I wanted to use the threads to guide me and work it from the outside in, making decisions as I went.

I also wanted to try out a range of stitches. The narrowness of the bands of the design, especially when combined with the heaviness of the thread, places some limits on stitches. I worked the outside border in fly stitch. It gave the density of colour that I wanted - but used an entire skein of thread.

I gradually worked my way in, using stem, chain, more fly and French knots. Later I introduced pistol stitch (yellow row below).

Keeping to my rainbow colour movement wasn't straightforward but it provided a general guide. I tried to foreshadow coming colours and provide an echo of those I was moving away from.

I found it useful as I entered a new band, to try out colours on a wedge.


The density of the thread grew on me. It began to look like a carpet.


Most of it I worked in my hand. I needed to scoop most of the stitches and even if I don't always follow the maxim 'never scoop in a hoop' (picked up at a class at the RSN) these narrow circular bands are difficult to work in a hoop. I used a hoop for the pistol stitches.

The row of curly things gave me a challenge. I tried bullion knots and fly stitch before settling on a double couched line and French knots. The line below these is worked in Palestrina knot stitch.

The finished piece needed blocking - and easy task which straightened it up nicely.


By now I had decided what to do with the finished piece, which is about 10" in diameter.

No, not a bag.


I appliqued it on to the coat I made last year, using the red thread of the outside border and a buttonhole stitch.

It blends well with the wool fabric and I get to see it (as, of course, do others!).

I've really enjoyed this piece. The threads (somewhat to my surprise) were terrific. I have some other designs to do and another pack of thread when the mood takes me.

Poinsettia Hand Towels

In between the big projects from my Scottish Embroidery tour I continued to work on some of the towelling hand towels I had in my stash. 

The second pair I settled on was another with a printed pattern - this time featuring poinsettias and not, fortunately, cross-stitch.

The instructions specified satin stitch but I decided to use an open fly stitch. This gave me good coverage and allowed more precise laying of the thread than satin stitch would give me.

I needed to go back over the leaves to fill gaps but I was very pleased with the results.

It was simple, bright and effective.

Progress on Owl

 I  have made some progress with my silk fantasy owl.  This is the piece on silk for the Embroiderers Guild 50th Anniversay Exhibition this year. I am posting this away from home from my iPad - so can't control the photo sizes.

From where I was when I last posted on this project, I moved to the area below the breast feathers and tried out the Bokara stitch I learned with Alison Snepp in 2011 then used in the chair project. Once again, this stitch served me well.

I also admit to its addictive hold over me, once I get going with it. I extended it. I also used satin stitch and open chain stitch to try to keep the rows of feathers in the outline drawing.

Using variegated silk thread both helped and hindered the effect I was after. While it got me variation within the band, it gave me rigid divisions between the bands vertically. I had to go back and alleviate this by blending with single colour thread. There is still a bit to do - and a couple of places to unpick.

I had originally intended to leave the breast in open fly stitch, but then filled it in. It really IS like colouring in with thread - try a bit, see how it looks, then add a bit more from the pallet.

It is coming along. I have the tail feathers and irises to go, as well as a bit of blending - best done in daylight.