12.07.11
Posted in ELMOWS at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Welcome to Holiday Month here on Stitching with a Shimmy!
Use as is or transfer only the tree or only the greeting! Use it as a Christmas Tree, a Solstice Tree, or a generic holiday tree…
The actual line pattern is about 5 inches wide by 6 inches tall. Feel free to use a photocopier to enlarge or shrink it to a preferred size!
Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.
What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?
If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-249-8698, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!
Reminder – please read–
Because of the size of my downloadable shopping cart (relatively small), after Elmow #12 I will have to begin rotating Elmows. This means that as I add a new one, the oldest remaining one will no longer be available. When Elmow #13 goes up, Elmow #1 comes down. #14 loses #2 and so forth. If you want older Elmows, now is the time to get them. 
Permalink
12.06.11
Posted in Stitching Genres at 7:00 am by deRomilly
Click for a closer view!
This sampler really IS a sampler in the true sense of the word. It’s a place where I play – I don’t worry too much if my stitching is perfect, though I work to improve it. I don’t worry if the colors end up “going,” even failures have something to tell me, and the fact that they are stitched there for posterity reminds me of why not to do things that way again! This isn’t going to end up on a wall, it’s not going to end up in a gallery (at least not in my lifetime), but hopefully I’ll learn something good in the meantime, and later people can learn something from my fun and games. It *does* go to classes I teach with me.
The first motif on this piece of fabric is an Art Nouveau border from one of the Dover books. I worked it in Vineyard Silks Merino thread. I really like the threads from this company. The merino is soft and nice to work with, and the Vineyard Silk Classics are amazing (more on them later). The merino was designed for needlepoint – I think on 14 count canvas, so it is pretty thick to be working on motifs this small. I might use it again for a larger design that needed to be filled quickly. It’s got a nice hand, and a nice sheen when completed.
And I like my color choices here- the alternating pink/turquoise gives a little variety while still keeping a unified theme. This is a border pattern that I could see stitching around the hem of a skirt for spring or summer… but in a different thread, or in a bigger size. We’ll see if I actually DO something like that with it!
As I recall, the motifs are about 2 1/2 inches tall (I’ve re-framed the work, so I can’t go measure it. I’ll try to remember to do it and edit this when I unlace it to move to a new motif!).
Permalink
12.05.11
Posted in Monday Treasures at 11:42 am by deRomilly
You all probably know by now that I love 18th century embroidery, although I don’t do historical recreations very much any more. This is an 18th century piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that isn’t the silkwork I normally gravitate to. It’s probably much more typically American than I might usually find when searching out this time period.
Done in woolwork, in Roumanian couching (a VERY American stitch, as it uses less wool), the design comes across as a bit rough and primitive, but is still absolutely charming to me.
It is part of a group that was stitched by “young ladies” at a school in Boston. I have no idea what age group “young” means in this context. The details are lacking enough that it could be anywhere from 8 to 15. I’d suspect, from the way the stitches are taken, that the stitcher was probably somewhere around 10. But it’s a guess. And an amateur guess, at that!
Permalink
12.03.11
Posted in General, Samplers at 7:00 am by deRomilly
One of the things I finished Thanksgiving weekend were two motifs on my ongoing embroidery/crewel sampler. This is a place where I play with threads, play with colors, and learn…
I finished the bottom two motifs last weekend. The top one is all in Appleton wool, and it was a stitch exploration that turned into a color test. The pink actually turned out to go with the golds quite well! The design is the crewel work design out of the Anchor Little book of Crewel stitches that goes with the basque stitch – which is the stitch around the circles and in the center of two of the leaves.
I relearned that I really dislike working with Appleton yarn – it’s quite fuzzy, although the fuzziness does hide some of the little stitching mistakes. It also stretches out and thins faster than some of the other yarns I use.
The bottom motif is an art deco design that I tried using some of the Art needlework techniques I’ve been reading about – and all of the strands of Eterna Silk floss. I got the look that’s so prevalent in my antique Poppy Piece, but I ran out of green silk before I could put in the stem — so today I used a green hand dyed that I won from Sharon Boggins years ago. Finally actually using the pretties! I can’t save them for the “perfect project” forever– and it WILL be forever if I try that!
I’ll go into detail about these four little motifs later.
Permalink
12.01.11
Posted in ELMOWS at 4:02 pm by deRomilly
It’s only one day (and a bit) late!
I’d love to see what you make with it!
Stitch count – 42 X 42
Size when stitched on 14 count fabric – 3 x 3 inches.
Note: Elmows are distributed as a pdf file. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can get the free Adobe PDF Reader here. This creates a nice clean chart or pattern that you can print on your printer (and size up or down using a copy machine, or even work from the monitor, if you want.
What ARE these things? What can I do with them and is it safe to buy them from you?
If something goes wonky, PLEASE email or call me
(919-265-7059, 9-5 ET). I want you to be happy!
Reminder – please read–
Because of the size of my downloadable shopping cart (relatively small), after Elmow #12 I will have to begin rotating Elmows. This means that as I add a new one, the oldest remaining one will no longer be available. When Elmow #13 goes up, Elmow #1 comes down. #14 loses #2 and so forth. If you want older Elmows, now is the time to get them.
Permalink
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
