Edinburgh Designs

No, I promise that I did not drop off the face of the earth.  I've just been super busy with travel, classes, surgery and designing.

Last fall I taught in England for the Sampler Guild of the UK.  It was a lovely long weekend in a very quaint town at a centuries old hotel with a thatched roof.  The ladies who attended were tremendous fun and wonderful stitchers.

When the weekend was over, my sister flew in to join me and we spent 10 days touring London and Edinburgh.  A day spent at Edinburgh Castle and Holyroodhouse Palace inspired two new designs.  The first ( above ) is the Edinburgh Etui which was inspired by a piece of china, some needlework tools and some embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots in the palace and by embroidered regimental flags, carved woodwork and military uniform decorations in the castle.

The box has two compartments - one in the top section with the swags and tassels and the other and larger one in the bottom section with the crown and branches.  The branches are adorned with Tudor roses, thistles and shamrocks, all of which are worked in surface embroidery.  However, the kit will also contain charts to work those motifs in counted thread for students who aren't comfortable with surface work.  The box is lined with a green/aqua two way silk Dupioni and the lid has a turned wooden thistle finial as its handle. 

The "smalls" are, left to right, a folding needle purse with bead and loop closure, a scissor fob on a tasseled cord, a crown thimble box and a pin pillow with beaded edges and beaded cord.  The back of the pin pillow is embroidered in a tartan plaid and embellished with a silver thistle charm.

The finial and charm are included in the kit.  This design will be available as a two day workshop in 2014.

The second design is the Edinburgh Reticule pictured below.

This design was done especially for Just CrossStitch Magazine's Christmas in Williamsburg seminar 2013.  The reticule shape was inspired by a tiny purse at Holyroodhouse Palace.  Its intertwining branches on the front are home to a Tudor rose, thistles and shamrocks, all worked in counted thread.  The back side ( see below ) has motifs taken from woodwork in the Castle and adapted into blackwork patterns.  The purse is lined in green silk Dupioni, the edges are embellished with beads and the closure is made from Hedebo buttonhole loops and a tasseled cord.

The "smalls" are a needle book and scissor fob.  The needle book has wool felt pages and a silk ribbon spine and the scissor fob slides on a tasseled cord.

Hope that you like them!

Revised Workshop List

This is an updated list of my current teaching pieces, including kit prices and teaching times...

                                                  Elizabethan Casket Etui, $150, two days

                                                      Tall Year Square, $175, two days

                                                   Gathering for Winter, $140, one day

                                                       Toy Chest Etui, $175, two days                                                  

                                                       

                                                            Helix Etui, $140, one day

This One's for Betty, $150, one day

Edinburgh Etui, $175, two days, available 2014

                                                    

All Year Square, $75, half day

Gathering for Winter Etui

 

Here's my latest design, completed just last week and debuted at a Toy Chest Etui class in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This etui was inspired by the turned wooden acorn which is attached to the closure cord of the box.  The acorn was made by Mike and Maggie Fraser of Sylvan Treasures and one will be included in each kit, as they have graciously agreed to make them for me.  Mike is always on the prowl for exotic woods and the acorns will be available in a variety of colors.  I'll also be carrying extras so that students can purchase them to make scissor fobs, etc.

The etui box and all of the 'smalls' are stitched with acorn motifs in a wide variety of stitches.  Some of them are based on traditional motifs found in antique samplers and some of them are my own creations.  There is a squirrel stitched on the bottom of the box as well as some more acorns and spaces for intitials and a date.  The 'smalls' are: a pin cushion, a needle book, a scissor sheath and a scissor fob. 

The box and the smalls are lined with a copper colored silk Dupioni which is a very close match to the reddish color used in the stitching.  The flosses and the ribbon are Gloriana ( of course! ) and are colors which I've never used before.  Most of them are new colors to the Gloriana line, created in the last 2 years.  The kit will also include an enameled charm from Susan Clarke Originals to be attached at the stitcher's discretion.

The pilot class is already scheduled for this summer and the design will be available for workshops beginning in 2013.

Teaching Schedule 2013

Lots of people have been emailing me about my teaching schedule so I'm moving it to the top of the first page...



 April 19-20, 2013 - The Carolina Sampler Guild, Charlotte, NC - Casket Etui

May 18-19, 2013 - Tidewater Sampler Guild, Virginia Beach, VA - Casket Etui,  TSG Emery - a special small project

June 1-2, 2013 -  Needle in Hand Sampler Guild, Carmel, IN - Toy Chest Etui

June 8-9, 2013 - Salty Yarns, Ocean City, MD - Tall Year Square, Gathering for Winter, All Year Square

September 20-22, 2013 - Elegant Stitch, Modesto, CA - Tall Year Square, Gathering for Winter

September 28-29, 2013 - Bay Area Sampler Guild, San Francisco, CA - Edinburgh Etui Pilot Class

December 5-9, 2013 - Christmas in Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA - Edinburgh Reticule

New Year's Eve Wrap-up

It's New Year's Eve and we're getting ready to honor our Southern roots by feasting on black eyed peas and greens, to bring prosperity in the coming year.  But first I wanted to post a few more photos...

The first is a stumpwork panel I stitched on for the Northwest Sampler Guild.  The guild has taken on the extremely ambitious project of reproducing Martha Edlin's casket ( in the V&A's permanent collection along with several other pieces of Martha's exquisite needlework ) in actual size.  I volunteered to work on this panel and stitched on it, off and on, for two years.  It isn't complete because the missing flower motifs are worked in detached buttonhole stitch on wire and that is one stitch I've never come close to mastering.  It was a very humbling experience trying to reproduce Martha's work - she was 11 years old when she made this casket!  The theme of her casket is "The Seven Virtues" and this panel illustrates Justice and Temperance.  The whole project is being coordinated by my soul sister, Marianne Adler, who also came up with the wonderful idea for the Jack in the Box in my Toy Chest Etui.

Martha Edlin reproduction panel

Next...
I've made another finial pin cushion, this one especially for the above mentioned Marianne.  It was a Christmas gift and I held off posting photos so that she wouldn't see it here before opening it on Christmas morning.  The colors are much more bold than my first finial and they were inspired by Marianne's blue and yellow kitchen and the red pillows in her living room.  The stitching is actually a line drawing of the design painted on the finial.  When I used to make Ukrainian eggs I always worked out a design on graph paper first, using colored pencils to choose the palette.  If the design on the finial was unwrapped and laid flat, it would look like the line drawing stitched on the pin cushion.

Happy, healthy, prosperous and blessed 2012, everyone!

Oops, I did it again!

After swearing twice before that I was done adding toys to my Toy Chest Etui, I've gone back on my word again.  But I REALLY mean it this time - this is the LAST new toy!  ( If I add any more we'll each have to stitch a second chest - the original is full! )

As a child I loved water color paint boxes and as an adult I still paint in my very rare spare time, except that now I use oils.  For some time now it has bothered me that the Toy Chest Etui didn't have a paint box, even though it does have a basket of colored pencils.  I just had to rectify that, so here it is.  Hope that you like it!

Paint Box, closed

Paint Box, open

The paint box holds a needle threader which is embellished with a painter's palette enameled charm fob.  The needle threader fits into a pocket inside the lid of the paint box, and the opening of the pocket is the sawtooth motif just to the right of my initials and the date in the photo above.  The bottom of the paint box is made from the same plaid silk Dupioni which lines the other Toy Chest pieces and there are pockets in both the top and bottom of the box, on the reverse side, for holding packets of needles.  I planned the size of the design to hold a packet of Bohin tapestry needles and a packet will be included in the kit in size #26, along with the needle threader and the charm.

I've ordered all of the supplies to make kits, but the needle threaders are currently back-ordered until "early next year" whenever that happens to be.  I'm hoping to have kits available by the end of February and the price will be $35.  Any guild or chapter which has hosted a Toy Chest Etui class in the past or has one coming up can contact me about making a group order.

Fun with Finials

This is the new toy I mentioned in my last post.  I hope that you weren't expecting another toy for the Toy Chest Etui because that's not what this is!

My friend Marty ( who inspired the napkin ring pin cushions ) has done it again.  At our EGA meeting this week she showed us a pin cushion that she had made using a wooden finial from a craft supply store.  She made it from instructions in a book by Blackbird Designs and hers was painted black, then sanded to make it look old and the pin cushion part was a floral design stitched on linen.  It was wonderful and it set my brain to spinning so I stopped by A.C. Moore on the way home and bought up all of the finials they had.  My first attempt is pictured below.

But first a little background...

Years ago, before I started my needlework design business, back when I had more free time, I used to make decorated eggs using the Ukrainian wax-resist method.  It involves drawing the design on the egg with beeswax and then dipping it into dye, drawing more and dipping in a different color, and so on until the design is complete.  This is the same method used to make Batik fabric.  The photo below shows some of my eggs.  Most of them are duck eggs but there are also some from geese, peahens and swans.

When I saw the oval section of the wooden finial, it reminded me of these eggs so I thought it would be fun to decorate the finial to look something like the eggs.  I used acrylic stencil paints and then antiqued the finial to tone down the colors and make it look old.  Finally I sprayed it with satin finish polyurethane.  I stitched the linen for the pin cushion in a pattern and an overdyed thread to match the painting on the finial.  The stitching is done on "Platinum" Belfast linen and is worked in an eyelet variation stitch using Gloriana's Summer 'n Smoke silk floss.  Finally, I glued a matching trim around the linen to cover the edge of the finial.
( Anyone who has been in one of my classes knows that I hate to use glue in finishing needlework, but sometimes there's just no way around it. )

As I look out of my windows at the ridge just to the west, the trees are in all of their autumn glory so I'm thinking that my next finial will use fall colors.  The one pictured here is a gift for a friend.

Many thanks to Marty and to Blackbird Designs for the great ideas and the inspiration!