Beekeeper Cushion 3

The third cushion using the beekeeper pattern is a different shape - not quite as long but much deeper. I wasn’t going to get an easy fit using the tension of the previous two cushions, so I moved up a needle size. It soon became evident this would work.

For this one I worked from the notion of St Margaret as the Pearl of Scotland a name by which she was widely known in her time. 

She brought brightness and glamour into the life of the community. As well as colour and pattern, she introduced jewels into both personal and communal life. Her husband, Malcolm III, himself illiterate, had the cover of her Bible encased in jewels. She carried it with her and read to him from it. She also carried a black palm-sized jewel-encrusted reliquary said to hold a fragment of the true cross. No detail about the jewels is recorded,

I was still trying to use up wool I had left from other projects, and I had assembled a 200 gram ball of pink, a similar ball of green and a couple of smaller balls of red. I thought these might represent pink diamonds, emeralds and rubies. A daughter suggested adding some surface embroidery with metallic to provide some sparkle. I tried, but wasn’t happy with the result so tried adding a metallic thread to the yarn as I knitted.  It was easy enough to do, but the metallic sank into the wool, giving only occasional glints. It took me a while to work out it was better to work a metallic diamond on one side of the knitted pod, rather than to use it all the way around.

I dug out the metallics I had and paid a visit to Create in Stitch to supplement my supply. As well as reels, I tried a couple in the Light Effects range, including the white E941 Glow in the Dark. I tried using the last to embroider a thistle on the central white “pearl”. You can’t tell it's a thistle, but, in pitch dark, it does in fact glow. I couldn’t photograph it. The cushion is reversible, so if parishioners get spooked by a tiny glow in the dark it can be turned over!  .

The metallic bling knitted into the wool is very subtle - perhaps too subtle to have any effect. That also may be more appropriate - a few glints rather than announcing itself to the world. I was, after all, after the story rather than the splendour.

I had intended to surround the central 'pearl' with rounds of a single colour  but when I reached this point was unconvinced, 

so began experimenting as I went, ending by mixing the red and green. Finally I let the pink dominate. I admit, using up the whole ball of pink was an incentive!

I squared off the sides with half hexies, intending to leave it thus but decided to complete the corners both for neatness and to hold it in place in the deep seat.

In is now in place in the church and used by those serving during services. I haven’t checked out the glow-in-the-dark effect!

I have one more to make which will not be required until Christmas Eve. I’m taking a short knitting break, but will be on to it by the end of the month. 

I have a couple of green wools for this one. I’m thinking emeralds and citrines. As far as I can tell, St Margaret had no association with, or premonition of, the green-uniformed Adelaide Cheerios Netball Team, but I’m not sure my granddaughters will see it that way!

Thanks to Veronica for the last photo.

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Beekeeper cushion 2: St Margaret of Scotland crosses the sea.

This is the second of four cushions I am making using the beekeeper quilt concept of knitted hexagon pods filled with archival quality wadding. The cushions are each designed to fit a specific (hard)chair in the Church of St Margaret of Scotland Woodville. I am using up the 8ply wool left from previous projects - a not unlimited, but nevertheless considerable, supply. I am trying to link each one to an event or theme of the saint’s life.

For this one I chose the theme of the sea and St Margaret’s journeys over water, in particular her arrival in the Firth of Forth around the age of 20, reportedly shipwrecked by a storm on the way to Hungary, the country of her birth, with her family. It is possible that they left Wessex, intending to seek asylum in Scotland, and Hungary was a misdirection to avoid pursuit. A shipwreck is equally possible. As great-niece and nephew of King Edward the Confessor, she and her brother were in both danger and demand in the succession battles raging in England, particularly after the defeat of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Whatever the story, dangerous sea journeys were part of Margaret’s inheritance.

This seat is a pair with the one for which I made the first cushion - wide and relatively shallow. I began by making a row of eight pods, to get the length and a colour combination reminiscent of the sea. I then built out either side, trying out different colour placements to get a sense of both harmony and churn.

Some pods use variegated wool. Some use odd bits joined together. One of the advantages of the pods is the capacity to use even tiny bits of wool in this way.

Once again, I made some half hexies to square off the edges. This isn’t strictly necessary, but is neater and gives a snug fit. 

It is now serving its purpose (thanks to a daughter for the photo).

The Journey cross stitch

My neighbour, who is currently struggling with her own health, while caring for her husband whose mobility has been severely hampered by a stroke,  produced this cross stitch kit, called The Journey and  asked me to embroider it for her. She had bought it some time ago to make as a gift for her daughter, who likes both bicycles and flowers.

The daughter is currently travelling 40km a couple of times a week to take my neighbour shopping, and she wanted to give her the framed embroidery to thank her. 

While she said it didn't matter how long it took, I was anxious to get it done. I don't mind cross stitch, but I'm not a fan of the intricacy required for this one - a lot of individual stitches and clusters of colour, as well as a great deal of structural detail, including gears. It required concentration on both the chart and the fabric - and was hard on my eyes. It's a large postcard size - about A5.

I worked the lower left quadrant first, mainly because it looked the most intricate. I started with the wheel, but then outlined some of the bars to keep myself on track. I would normally have worked these as outlines at the end, but it helped to have some guidelines.

I didn't photograph the progress in detail - I just wanted it done! The second wheel and lower right quadrant came next, with the handlebars and basket frame added to give me perspective. 

The sunflowers were easier than their leaves - a welcome relief from the painstaking fill-in of the blossoms behind the wheels and in the basket.

I pushed on to finish late one night so I could add the text in the morning.

It was a joy to see it done

to remove it from the hoop, take out the tacking, and iron it.

It's now with my neighbour, who is happy and knows how she wants it framed.

I have my fingers crossed her daughter likes it.

Beekeeper Cushion no.1.

 

My mission to finish the various projects sitting in bags in my spare room led me to get my head around this curiosity. It turned out to be the result of a Beekeeper's Quilt pattern I bought seven years ago, presumably to use up left-over bits of wool. I don't think I ever had the intention of making a quilt, and I certainly don't intend it now.

It is, however, a good way of using up left-over yarn. You knit a series of little pods, using three dpns. The first three rows getting set up are awkward

but it gets easier after that.

After 20 rows you stuff the pocket with wadding and join the two rows together.

After adding a few more pods, I wondered if any of my family were in need of a teacosy. It seemed to me that would be a good use to put this to.

No-one wanted a teacosy (nor did I, I have several!) but there was a very positive response to cushions to cover four particular church chairs, so, with measurements, I got to work.

I needed eight pods to cover the length stipulated, so as I finished each pod I added it to a central line to mark the length. I already had the width  of five pods

It gave me something to aim for and meant I could choose and spread the colours I had, rather than ending up with blocks of the same. 

I was a bit concerned that a cushion of such random colours might look out of place in a church. I checked out the Saint for which the church is named, St Margaret of Scotland, to see if she had any colour association. To my joy I discovered that one of her famous acts was to introduce colour into the Scottish Court! She encouraged ordinary people, as well as the nobility, to wear coloured clothing, and introduced colour into wall hangings and church furnishings! She also set up workshops in the palace to produce embroidered textiles - and was herself an embroiderer!  Wow!

Eight rows by five is obviously 40 pods needed. The rows, however, interlock, meaning that some half-pods are needed to give a straight edge on two ends.The other two sides meet in points, not conducive to squaring off in knitting.

So the last two pods were four halves - the trickiest to knit, since, to get a smooth edge, I cast on from the centre and decreased rather than the other way around. 

It is now a more-or-less rectangular cushion that fits in a particular space. I’m wondering how I could have made it a couple of cm wider to reach exactly to the front edge of the chair. 

Half pods wouldn’t work. Slightly larger pods on the front row might work, but the best answer might be to to join the pods in vertical, rather than horizontal rows, with half pods along the long, rather than the short edges. I shall wait for a report on how it works in practice. It may, in fact, not be an issue.

I can, however,  begin work on the next one!

Quaker Gardener Pouch

 

After the bicycle panel I moved straight on to the Gardener, which comes from panel D11 of the Quaker Tapestry, entitled Industrial Welfare.There it is associated with the Cadbury Company.

It is a more complex design than the earlier two so the tracing and reverse stitching took a bit more time.

I worked the roof first, then the gardener. His clothing reminded me of my grandfather, who was a nurseryman.

I don't recall him tying his trouser legs with string, but he well might have. His waistcoat and jumper certainly looked like this.

It took me a while to be satisfied with the tree. It probably still isn't the best, but I'm satisfied. In the original tapestry panel the blossom on the tree is white, but I stayed with the kit.

I originally intended to back this with similar cloth and make a tote bag, however the cloth proved elusive. I thought I had bought a pack along with the kit, but I must be mistaken about that. I tried the Hand Spinners and Weavers Guild to no avail, so opted to make a pouch.

I fortunately had a strip I had trimmed from the fabric supplied with the bicycle kit which matched this fabric and was the same length.

With that addition the fabric could be folded so that the embroidery fitted nicely on one side, with a zip insertion on the back. Most of the zips I had were too short, but one proved to be about right.

My go-to green ikat once again proved useful as lining. It was slightly tricky to line, but I managed most of it on the machine. I did have the iron going though the construction which certainly helped.

I enjoyed seeing the Quaker Tapestry, both in Adelaide and in Kendal. I also enjoyed visiting the Museum and Shop, both now closed.  

Finishing the three associated kits gives me great satisfaction and pleasure.

Quaker More Freedom Bicycle Bag

 

The second of my Quaker embroideries is entitled More Freedom  and features a woman riding a bicycle. It comes from the Quaker Tapestry panel A8, depicting the 1895 Manchester Conference. 

After finishing it, I realised there is some guidance in the published Quaker Gallery Stitch Guide, which I'm pretty sure I own! Somewhere. Having now looked at the Guide online, I notice Bridget Guest, the author, suggests adding a street scene to personalise it. I'm rather glad I didn't see that beforehand! 

As you can tell, my cyclist would be in trouble before she started with those wheels!  Perhaps, instead of tracing using the included iron-on transfer pencil, I should have used a compass.

The iron-on transfer gives, of course, a reverse image. Since, by this method, you are creating a pattern on the back of the fabric, it is what you want.

When you mount it right-side up in your hoop, voila! The wheels, however, are wonky.

It is an exercise in the basics - transferring the pattern, Quaker stitch and Bayeux stitch.

I managed those OK, but not perfect circles!

This time the fabric was enough to fold into a simple bag.

I added a zip, since I had one the right size- or almost. It dips slightly at one end.

I lined it in an appropriately coloured batik

and made a twisted cord. The zip means the cord can't be fully retracted for storage in the bag, so I added a bead and loop, so the length can be adjusted.

It can, if so desired, be stored inside except for a short loop serving as a handle. That should  cover most contingencies.

Again, I have no specific recipient in mind - and I certainly have more useful little bags than I will ever use, but hopefully someone  will take a fancy to it! It's too small to act as a bicycle bag, but it would do to carry a phone and purse safely while riding a bike if you didn't have safe pockets, giving you, yes, more freedom!

Quaker Kingfisher Bag.

I bought this kit when the Quaker Museum in Kendel, Cumbria, closed in December last year. I already had two other untouched kits I had bought there while visiting in 2019 or 2018. When I finished the Balvraid Hap I decided it was time I tackled all three. I began with the Kingfisher.

All three kits feature a figure from one of the embroidered panels of Quaker History on display at the Museum. These can still be viewed once a week.

The fabric provided in the kit is the woollen cloth specially woven for the Quaker Tapestry project. It comes with a cotton backing fabric, and the method of transferring the pattern is the same in all three kits: you use an iron-on transfer pencil to trace the design on to the cotton backing, place the wool behind the cotton and stem stitch around the outline through both layers, using the Appleton's wool provided and keeping to the colours on the illustration.

It's a relatively cumbersome  technique, in a world where we are accustomed to designs printed on to fabric, but the wool would certainly not take print, and this works.

The design requires thread painting, and I found myself with quite a few hanging threads in order to achieve the effect. As long as I left the threads on the right side of the work this presented no problem and it progressed quite quickly.

The final touch is scattering drops of water around the bird as it rises from the water with its catch.

I thought I had bought a pack of the fabric, but can't find it. I had hoped to use it as backing to turn this into a bag. I visited the Hand Spinners and Weavers' Guild Shop to see if they had anything similar, but was out of luck. 

While the design did not allow me to simply fold the edges in to make a small bag, I was able to cut a strip from the bottom and insert it to achieve the same. I could then fold over the top edge and line it with green watery batik.

After discussion with Veronica, I decided to add a cord so it can be worn as a cross-body bag. After testing the cords I had, I made a twisted cord from lengths of 6 of the colours in the embroidery.

Also in consultation with Veronica, I made a loop and added a button. The cord can be stored inside the bag if not required.

I'm somewhat surprised how well this has turned out. I'm not sure who will use it, but it does, I think, justice to the Quaker designers. It isn't large, but will accommodate a phone and purse, or a small project.

A really satisfying finish.