Phoebe Anna Traquair Finish

I put the finishing touches on my Phoebe Anna piece, increasing the rows of couching on the large leaf to intensify the colours (other than the underlying brown)
and outlining the berries, branches and leaf.

I spent some time considering what to do with the piece before settling on a bag that I can use for projects. I had some dark denim that I thought would work well, so made that into a bag and inserted the embroidery before discovering that the dye in the denim transferred to my hands while stitching. I unpicked the embroidered insert, washed the denim and rinsed it thoroughly in vinegar to set the die.

 

Alas, the dye still leaked as I handled the denim, so I abandoned it and tried again with a piece of dark green drill. The colour is lighter in the photo than in reality.

The finished product, lined in pale blue chambray, is attractive and useful - both important to me. 

It will also be examined and appreciated by stitching friends as I use it for current projects - beginning, I hope, with the Rose and Thistle crewel work - the second project from the Scottish Highlands Tour that I now intend to move on to!

Progress on Phoebe Anna Traquair piece

I have made good progress on my Phoebe Anna Traquair piece. I continued working the sky around the birds, building the picture outwards.

I need to do a little more work on the transition of sky colour above and below the branch - but this is easier done as the picture progresses.

I  continued along the tree branch.  It was quite tricky. I worked by instinct and eye, with a few periods of studying the original and also looking at trees. I used the full range of four colours provided for the tree. For the stem of the leaf I blended a green with a beige.

The sky was soothing to stitch. It was good to have a large area to work. I continue to fiddle with the top corner cloudy thing.

This is where I am now. I am adding rows of couching to that big leaf, to lift the colour above the brown base. I have more of this to do as well as adding the outlines of the stem, branches and leaf. I will also touch up a few places and adjust that cloud further.

Phoebe Anna Traquair piece

Bloggers who followed my recent trip to the UK will be aware of the 2 pieces I began while on the Scottish Highlands Embroidery Tour. One, based on an 1899 panel by Phoebe Anna Traquair, was designed and taught by Meredith Willett who knows as much about Phoebe Anna Traquair as anyone alive.

Phoebe Anna was an artist born in Ireland in 1852 who married a Scottish scientist, moved to Edinburgh and produced an extensive body of paintings, murals, jewellery and embroidered panels. She was not a professional embroiderer but adapted techniques to suit her purpose. The small piece of embroidery we began with Meredith is based on a segment of the third panel (Despair) of her Progress of a Soul series, on display at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

We began stitching a large leaf - laying long stitches then crouching them down in a range of colours that reflected autumnal change.
















We also worked birds and berries
to master the techniques.

The thread is Splendor 12 strand silk and most of the work is split stitch. The fabric is an antique loose weave linen sourced to closely match the fabric Phoebe Anna would have used.

Since returning home I have worked the other birds, the branch on which they sit 

and much of the sky.

I now have a rhythm and a bit of a run on this work so hope to continue to make progress. It is very addictive. I am practising split stitch with the needle coming up through the stitch, rather than down through the stitch. I usually find this difficult, but working in four strands of the Splendor silk makes it quite manageable. The silk has a lovely sheen and dimension.                 

I am now working the tricky trunk of the tree - about which there has been much discussion amongst my fellow travellers. More soon.