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The Roots of Blackwork Embroidery

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The roots of blackwork embroidery
(will the real blackwork please stand up?)
by Christian de Holacombe

Blackwork, as a style of needlework, is notoriously hard to define. It’s worked in black thread — except when it’s red, blue, or lavender. It’s usually in a single color — except when it’s two or three colors at once, or has spangles, or gold thread added. It’s mostly outlines — except when there are fillings. It’s done to counted threads (except when it’s not) and in double running stitch — except when it’s backstitch, or includes cross stitches or plain running stitch. About the only thing that doesn’t seem to change is that historical blackwork is almost always worked in silk thread on white linen.Continue reading The Roots of Blackwork Embroidery

Quilted Cap, Asian Style

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THE PROJECT PAGE: Quilted cap, Asian style
by Christian de Holacombe, Guild Chronicler

quilted cap from Mamluk eraSimple quilted caps like the one at right are among the few complete garments that have survived from the Mamluk era (14thc.) in the southern Mediterranean. This cap is perhaps a kalautah, a type of cap worn by itself indoors, or with a turban wound around it for outdoors. Simple caps like this, often decorated with embroidery, are still worn daily by many men in Asian and Western Asian or Mediterranean cultures.Continue reading Quilted Cap, Asian Style

Quilt Counterpoint

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Is This Stitch Period? (#12 Of A Series)
Quilt counterpoint
by Christian de Holacombe, Guild Chronicler

Quilting is one of those arts whose origins are lost in time. It seems to have been invented independently at several times and places. And the practical probably came before the beautiful: stitching two layers of cloth together with padding in between is an effective way of making a sturdy fabric that resists punctures, softens sharp corners and retains body heat.Continue reading Quilt Counterpoint

Pulled Thread: A Tangled Web

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Is This Stitch Period? (#14 Of A Series)

Pulled thread: a tangled web
by Sabrina de la Bere, Guild Patron

A hanging done in whitework, showing the Last SupperWhitework is a modern term for most embroidery on white linen (or cotton) worked with a white thread (linen, cotton, silk). There are many forms of whitework, but the form we are concentrating on in this survey is pulled work.Continue reading Pulled Thread: A Tangled Web

Puffed, Stuffed & Bombasted

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Period Stitches (#6 in a series)

One of the most frequently asked questions in the Guild is, “What stitches are period?” This article, the sixth in a series of six, looks at another category of the Apprenticeship Program, Stitched Fabrics. This article first appeared in the Guild newsletter, The Filum Aureum, Summer 2001.

Puffed, Stuffed & Bombasted
by Elsepth the Semstress of Dunkeld

Fabric that is puffed, stuffed, quilted, corded, gathered, appliquéd, and otherwise manipulated is all included in our Guild program’s sixth and last category, called “stitched fabric”.Continue reading Puffed, Stuffed & Bombasted

Prose, Poems, Points & Purls

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Prose, poems, points & purls:
Embroidered book covers
by Christian de Holacombe

Artisans have probably been decorating book covers for as long as there have been books — and before the invention of the “codex,” the book with pages that has been the mainstay of literature in the West for a thousand years or so, the long Judaic tradition of rich covers for the Torah scroll tells us that there were fancy covers for scrolls, too.Continue reading Prose, Poems, Points & Purls

Prick & Pounce

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Prick & Pounce
Marking designs on difficult fabrics
by Christian de Holacombe

woodcut of lady tracing pattern onto fabric, using light from the window behind the fabricTransferring a design to light colored fabric is usually fairly easy. If the embroidery fabric is thin, it can simply be laid over a design and traced. If the fabric is stouter and less transparent, the “window trick” usually works — taping the design to a window, then taping the fabric over it. Light from the window shining through the pattern lets you see and trace the design, as shown in this 16th century woodcut.Continue reading Prick & Pounce

Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)

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The Project Page
Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)
by Christian de Holacombe

While an entire Elizabethan sweet bag may be a rather daunting long term project, a three-inch pincushion is a more manageable size for a trial project in this style of embroidery.
As was mentioned earlier, these embroideries in period were done on a sturdy, but somewhat loosely woven linen. Although it helps if the linen is approximately square, with something close to the same number of threads horizontally and vertically, it doesn’t have to be exactly even, because you are going to trace the design onto the linen and outline it by making tent stitches in dark colored thread following the design lines. Once your design is outlined, the parts can simply be filled in.Continue reading Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)

A Period Workbox

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A period workbox
by Christian de Holacombe and Michaela de Neuville

Putting together a period workbox seems to be an exercise in gathering little clues from a lot of different sources. So I was delighted when I saw what an old friend of mine, Mistress Michaela de Neuville (OL) had put together for a needlework demonstration. Her research is always excellent, and she agreed to collaborate with me on this article. Michaela’s basket is on our cover, its contents are shown again on p.4, and her needlebook is this issue’s project.Continue reading A Period Workbox

Pattern darning: Decoration in Dots and Dashes

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Pattern darning: Decoration in dots and dashes
by Sabrina de la Bere

Pattern darning is an embroidery technique that follows the warp and weft of the fabric fibers. At its simplest, it is a running stitch that moves in either a horizontal or vertical line. The part designed to show is on top of the fabric and the remainder is behind. Usually done with more than one strand of embroidery thread, it is an extremely versatile form of embroidery.Continue reading Pattern darning: Decoration in Dots and Dashes

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