Italian Banner Progress

I managed to get the homework done for the second class of the Italian Banner sampler.

The most important preparation was the stitching of the background square for the Casalguidi initial.

The background was worked in Italian four sided stitch.








Mostly out of curiosity, I worked it around the square, rather than back and forth in rows. This gave the piece a mitred corner effect - probably not what was intended.

In the event, we didn't tackle the initial! The main stitch is, however, the same as that for the tongue of the Peruginan dragon - just a lot more of it!

We worked on our other piece of homework - the Sicilian cut and drawn dragon. In my last post on this sampler I commented that I had made an error in drawing the threads, but had fixed it. Ha! So much for smartness. In fixing it, I failed to take into account the need for absolute precision in the weave of the threads both drawn and remaining. I ended up, in both weft and warp, with two threads together with the same under-over pattern.

The idea with this style, is that you create an open grid by removing threads, then re-weave a picture or pattern into the spaces created. To create a smooth and perfect picture, you must weave under and over to match the weft and warp of the natural linen. In failing to retain the original unders and overs, I made it impossible to achieve this. So I spent quite a bit of time rectifying the grid threads.



In the end I got there - and I'm quite pleased with my dragon.

I will now put this aside. I might attempt a bit more of the Casalguidi initial - but the rest can wait until we have the additional class Christine Bishop generously offered us in January.

I am learning quite a lot through this sampler!