Aquile finished with tassels

I've been slowly working on tassels for the Aquile mat, using an adapted version of one by Rita Maria Faleri in Inspirations 103.

The body of the tassel consists of 20 strands knotted at each end with 3 bundles of 4 knots, so 12 knots per strand and 240 knots per tassel.

I decided to make the head of the knot from a bundle of left-over linen covered in needlelace. I considered a bead, but decided to stay with the softness of the linen and cotton.

These are not difficult to make, but require fine motor skills.

The initial one was good enough for me to keep going.

After two I had to stop for a while, due to an operation on my right index finger to remove a myxoid cyst. For about ten days, while I could manage some tasks, and some stitching, using my thumb and middle finger, knots proved too difficult. I have recovered enough in the last two days to tie the requisite 480 knots,  216 while on desk duty at the Guild, and 264 at home. Not that I was counting!

I’m not sorry to have finished, and I won’t be making any more for a while!

I also made the two extra needle lace heads, and attached them 

so the cushion front is now fully converted.

It joins the earlier two mats, or, more likely, throw-overs to cover food.

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I have fabric left for another two, but won't be working them any time soon. These three will now go into the upcoming Guild 60th Anniversary Exhibition. 

While I like them, their use is limited, and I'm into useful!

Aquile kit

I really like the work of Rita Maria Faleri. I have worked two of her mats from Inspirations magazines, and also bought her  Esemplario Book 1 , which I can’t find, no doubt on loan to someone. When Aquile was offered for sale last year through Inspirations, as a cushion, I could resist, and bought the kit. Determined not to add to my stash, I began working on it as soon as my Christmas gift stitching was finished in December.

As usual, it is worked in the hand on a very loose weave linen - about 15 threads per inch using Anchor Baby Knitting cotton (4ply).  This is not so good for my hands and the threads shift as you work on it. In the past this hasn’t bothered me much, but it did this time.

Here is my first section photographed resting on the pattern photograph. 

The instructions began with the usual direction to mark the centre lines with tacking using the machine thread provided (natural). I obeyed, but it was hardly useful as the pattern was not organised centrally (and the thread was near invisible on the linen). It would have been more sensible to mark it into three columns with coloured tacking, but I didn’t figure this out until it was too late.  I figured I needed to work the column lines first to give myself a structure in which to work, and did so. However  my count was slightly out and I adjusted accordingly. Undoing was unthinkable.

  

I found it difficult to keep my count accurate, partly because of movement in the fabric, partly from discontinuity, remembering the direction and count between sessions. It is a flowing, rather than a simply geometric design.

A close look reveals many discrepancies. The small bird figures below the eagles were particularly tricky - a small figure worked with very thick thread, so hard to get clean shapes.

I had no intention of making a cushion. I have enough and I still don’t think the fabric is suitable.It would certainly need to be lined. Like its predecessors, it’s probably not much of a mat either, but will function best as a throw. 

I modified the design, removing the small birds from the top row, adding crosses to the top of the dividing columns and squaring off the shape so it is the same size as my earlier examples.

I kept the cushion border, but it’s fractionally wider than the cushion one.

I am in the process of making onion knot tassels for each corner. This will take me a while. My initial calculation is 1000 knots, but I might simplify. I will post an update.

Because I’m not making a cushion, I have another piece of linen - what would have been the back. As much as I like the result, I’m not going to make the same again. For now the spare is put away. If that book ever turns up, I just might get it out and have a go at a different design.