Exquisite Threads: English Embroidery 1600s-1900s

 I visited the Exquisite Threads Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria on my recent trip to Melbourne. It was fabulous. Most items belong to the museum's collection. Visitors are allowed to take photos without flash - so I did.

Items included some wonderful samplers, displayed using mirrors, so the backs can be seen, and with chairs provided so you can sit to read and view the detail.

There is also a dress uniform.

and a cope.

There is a pair of embroidered leather gloves. The description suggests the embroidery was first done on silk then transferred to the leather - an extraordinary process.

A couple of stomachers made me grateful for my jeans.

There is a silk embroidered apron in which the original gold thread has faded to - grey!

I think my favourite was the amazing wall hanging embroidered by Catherine Holliday for Morris and Sons, but I also enjoyed the braces and crewel work.

There is a bonnet and any number of bed hangings - mostly crewel work.

The exhibition is free, beautifully curated and easily accessible, drawing a constant stream of visitors - a real tribute to the Gallery.

Progress on Owl

 I  have made some progress with my silk fantasy owl.  This is the piece on silk for the Embroiderers Guild 50th Anniversay Exhibition this year. I am posting this away from home from my iPad - so can't control the photo sizes.

From where I was when I last posted on this project, I moved to the area below the breast feathers and tried out the Bokara stitch I learned with Alison Snepp in 2011 then used in the chair project. Once again, this stitch served me well.

I also admit to its addictive hold over me, once I get going with it. I extended it. I also used satin stitch and open chain stitch to try to keep the rows of feathers in the outline drawing.

Using variegated silk thread both helped and hindered the effect I was after. While it got me variation within the band, it gave me rigid divisions between the bands vertically. I had to go back and alleviate this by blending with single colour thread. There is still a bit to do - and a couple of places to unpick.

I had originally intended to leave the breast in open fly stitch, but then filled it in. It really IS like colouring in with thread - try a bit, see how it looks, then add a bit more from the pallet.

It is coming along. I have the tail feathers and irises to go, as well as a bit of blending - best done in daylight.

Couple of tassel finishes

I recently had the need for a tassel or two to finish off the Ottoman pouch. This caused me to dig out the tassels I made last year at Christine Bishop's workshop - and reminded me that I had one to finish - one with the head covered in needle lace. Since Finish should be my middle name, I took the tassel with me on my recent trip to Canberra and worked on it in spare moments.

I had bought some variegated perle 8 cotton to make it easier for me to work - a technique (trick?) that worked well.

I was able to bring the needle lace right down over the tasseled binding and was pleased with the result.

I even considered using this tassel on the Ottoman pouch, but opted, in the end, for dark blue. Although the pink one looked ok, the blue provided more consistency.                                                                           I will save the pink one for another day,another project.                                                                  

I used one of the buttons we made last year with Christine as a fastener, with a blue tassel on the closure loop.

I then made a few more tassels to finish the bag.

I like these bags a lot (now there's a surprise!) and find them really useful.

Lunch Bag

Another of my Christmas projects was a lunch bag for my sister-in-law. I had some insulating wadding and suitable fabric, but had to buy some waterproof lining, a freezer pack and a water bottle to go inside.

The pattern was from the Design Collective's Lunch Bags book that I have used before.

The process was relatively straightforward. The bag consists of one long piece, and two side inserts. The insulated wadding is attached to the outer fabric.

 The lining is made up in the same way and inserted, with a pocket in the lid to hold a small cold pack, and elastic straps on one side to hold a water bottle.

The shoulder strap/handle is added to the outside. I added a tab on the side away from the bottle to avoid the side gaping.






I hope the bag proved useful to my sister-in-law for taking her lunch to work each day - or for picnics or snacks at the beach.

Pouch from Ottoman Double Running piece

B&B

I used double running stitch to applique the Ottoman Double running linen piece to the square I had constructed from the blue denim and maroon batik.

I experimented with a couple of stitches to join the envelope flap pieces together, but ended up using a version to blanket stitch bars used in the original Alison Snepp design.

I kept my bars in ecru only and made them a bit larger than the original. I intended the denim to be undecorated and the focus to be on the batik and linen.

It is evident from the photo that my envelope did not match up perfectly. I initially compensated for this by adjusting the shape of the inset piece.

As I stitched I decided that (1) the denim needed embellishment and (2) I could get a better, and more interesting effect by inserting  a whole additional strip of fabric to make the envelope more symmetrical.

The embellishment would, of course, have been better done before construction, but was not too difficult.


As with the original, I added a two-colour chain stitch border around the opening.

I also constructed a tri-colour cord for the edge.

I then decided to add an appliquéd strip to the right hand side to imitate the left.

While this reads as a lot of messing around rather than a planned, designed approach, I really enjoy working in this way - the peasant approach. I have added a blue tassel and one of the needle lace buttons from the Italian Tassels class will come into its own when I get home in a few days time (I'm currently visiting in Canberra).i will also be able to block and iron the bag!

Jedi Jeans

My grandson's birthday last weekend, so I have been embroidering a pair of jeans with a couple of Jedi warrior motifs. I used a publicly available colouring-in page as my starting template. After contemplating covering the whole surface with figures, I settled for two - Yoda and Luke Skywalker.

Reluctantly, I transferred the design using Solvi, removing the latter as soon as I had the outline stitched.  It worked OK this time - I was fairly quick stitching the outline, so the Solvi didn't become brittle.

I used some thread from Denmark, purchase from the Embroiderer's Guild a while back. It was fairly course but very strong and good to work with on the tough surface of the denim. I liked it a lot. I used up the best part of a green hank on Yoda!


The harder one was Luke Skywalker. Firstly, I had overlooked the awkwardness of getting my hand inside a boy's skinny leg jeans!

Then there was the small matter of embroidering a face - not one of my skills.

I adjusted the hair, redid the facial features, took the hair out completely and redid it - then, finally, unpicked the whole thing except for the arm and light sabre! I used DMC neon for the sabre.

I am satisfied with the result. They were well received and looked good when Fionn wore them to the movies on Monday.