Opus Anglicanum finish: Mary

This is where I left Mary at the end of the Opus Anglicanum class in January.  Since then I have managed to work my way through a piece of canvas work, preparatory to the March Retreat in the English Lakes District, finish the Australian Bush piece . and the acorn and horse from Opus Anglicanum.

So now for Mary. It seems appropriate to be posting this from Windermere, on my embroidery retreat. Details of how that is going can be found on my travel blog.



    Regretfully, I did not take photos of the face in progress. It looked more like a skull for much of the time. My granddaughters had many questions about the veil - why did she have white hair? why would Mary wear a veil? why would you wear a veil under a crown?










I have surprised myself by thoroughly enjoying working with one strand of silk. That, however, came to an end and there was no way out of completing the goldwork!

I'm very pleased that I had finished the crown at home during the course. This meant I only had the cloak/shawl to finish. It took a few hours and I tried hard to improve the stitch as I went along.


In deference to my granddaughters, I also added rather more hair than the original had - in order to make it clear that the white bit was a veil.






Again, I had been giving thought to how I might use this piece. I still had one box with a magnetic base for storing needles and the embroidery space on the lid was perfect.


So here she is, guarding (blessing?) the needles. She will make a nice gift for someone.

Thanks again to Alison Cole and my fellow students!

Gold scrollwork and flowers

The Embroiderers' Guild of SA runs a Summer School each January. This year it was held at the Guild premises over four days. Classes were each two days. I only attended one class as I was going away.

I chose a goldwork class - to stretch myself a little. I have done a couple of goldwork classes with Alison Cole in previous Summer Schools but that is the extent of my experience. 

This class was a goldwork scroll with flowers, taken by Di Fisher from our Guild.

The work required a frame rather than a hoop. I chose my Doodler frame because it is hands-free and portable. It worked well.

The design was very small. Even with a magnifier I struggled to see clearly. I did better with some threads and with some stitches.                                                                                         

The design used reverse chain, interlacing, loop stitch, ladder stitch, single back stitch, herringbone, blanket, buttonhole, Elizabethan corded trellis stitch, detached corded buttonhole filling, overcast/wrapped filling, herringbone-threaded and Vandyke stitch.    

The scroll itself wasn't too bad but I really struggled with the leaves and metallic thread.                           After the class I came very close to abandoning the project. Undoing was not an option with the threads - and I didn't think I could do better without significantly enlarging the design.

The thing that kept me going was the thought that I could use the completed piece on the lid of a small magnetic needle box I had stashed away, where it would look blingy and, well, gold!

It certainly would not pass the eye of any Guild member (myself included) but is decorative.

So here it is, duly mounted and useful.

I find these boxes useful and they make good presents. I am regarding this as a practice piece - and reminder to only try very simple, rather than very small, goldwork in future!

Siennese Illuminated Treasure Box

I had a couple of small wooden boxes in my stash which I thought might be about the right size for the Siennese Illuminated Treasure piece I have just finished. They proved, however, to be too small. That is probably just as well, as I had bought them with a purpose in mind!

I also had a much larger dark oak box that I had purchased using a discount voucher that needed to be used by a particular date. After a bit of testing and debate I decided to use the oak box. The alternative was to make a box - a possibility that is still open if I decide I don't really like this piece on the oak box, since I didn't need to cut the fabric to mount it.

It took a bit of manoevring to get it satisfactorily centred, particularly since one of my edges wasn't quite straight.




I also discovered that the hoop had left a mark - I hadn't removed it each night since I was working on it pretty constantly.


I wasn't prepared to try laundring the silk, so embroidered my initials and date over the marks.

I'm not sure what I will use the box for, but I will find a place and use for it in the sewing room which is slowly coming back together. In the meantime, the photo on the kitchen table gives a sense of size and shape of the box.

Siennese Illuminated Treasure Stumpwork

I've been working on the stumpwork component of the Alison Cole Siennese Illuminated Treasure over the last week.

The individual petals are traced onto muslin, then worked over wire in  a hoop. We began the green leaf arrangement in class as it is the most complicated.

It becomes a bit of a challenge to stitch as the number of wires in the hoop increase.

I made an error on the last leaf motif, which should have been in the pink/purple colours. I made it green without thinking, and decided to leave it rather than redo.

Once finished, the leaves are cut out, trimmed and added to the goldwork.

This is the finished product. It's not bad for a first effort. There are a couple of tiny spots where the white cover of the wire shows through the stitching on the leaves. I can probably add a couple of stitches to cover if I am careful.


Now to find a way of displaying it.

Embroiderers' Guild Summer School

Last week I attended a two-day class at the South Australian Embroiderers' Guild Summer School. This time I decided to take a step outside my usual Alison Snepp class, and enrol in something completely new. I went for Alison Cole's class on goldwork and stumpwork, Siennese Illuminated Treasure.

The classes are held at Hosanna Heights, in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide, a property that was once a monastery and now houses international students. It has lovely grounds and buildings.

Some students and teachers live in for the Summer School, but I just attended during the day.



There were fourteen of us in the class. I was too focused on learning to work with such small scale items to take photos during the classes. I was also a bit preoccupied with a plumbing crisis we were having at home, and in the end left the class at midday on the second day. Alison was very understanding, and her instructions were pretty clear, so I didn't have too much difficulty figuring out what to do.


This is the first photo I took, a day after the class. The yellow is felt - padding for the leaves and flowers to come. The fawn is gold kid. The red berries are needle-lace over padding and kid.

We had a choice of working on black delustred satin or parchment-coloured dupion. As you can see, I chose the latter.

One reason I only do one class at Summer School (it is possible to do two) is that I hate to end up with two demanding projects to finish at the very beginning of the year - and classes are rarely set up to finish a project. I have been working on this project as much as I can in the week since the class.


This is where I am now. I have found it challenging, especially couching all the tambour thread. Laying tambour thread around each sequin is an exercise in concentration and accuracy.


I am now working on the detached petals to add in the circles. I think that deserves a post all of its own.

I am pleased to have chosen this and given it my best shot. I don't think I am going to become a goldwork/stumpwork convert, but I have a lot of respect for those who do!