Winter Issue of SANQ To Feature Trevelyon Christmas Ornament

I am pleased to be able to share with you that Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly will be publishing instructions for my Trevelyon Christmas Ornament (a miniature purse, featured on their cover) in their 2012 Winter Issue (#69), along with an article I wrote about Thomas Trevelyon.   

I feel fortunate to have one of my designs featured in a magazine that I have followed since its inception. 

It seems a good time, as well, to thank all of you who follow my embroidery.  Your support & interest helped me to realize that I might have something worthwhile to add to our collective body of embroidery publications.

Tudor Rose Padded Pinwheel

Last year I did a stint as Stage Manager in a local production of Shakespeare.  It was an interesting and exciting experience.  In a conversation with the Director she said "You shouldn't remake a piece unless you have something to add to it."


Of course, she was speaking of theatre, but at the time I thought that the same could be said of designing.  It's that aspect - adding something of myself to the design  - that drives me to do it.


In that spirit I reworked the Quaker Pinwheels, reproduced so charmingly by Erica Uten.  I was utterly beguiled by the shape and diminutive nature of them.   They were knitted as were the originals.  Mine was to function as embroidery equipage, so it seemed more natural to embellish it with embroidery.


More crucially effecting my design was the fact that embroiderers use needles much more often than pins.  On a pinwheel, the pins are stored by pushing them into the edges of the wheel.  This is great for storage, but isn't practical as a resting place for needle/pin whilst using it.  I needed to alter the piece in a way that provided both storage and holder for pins & needles.

This was accomplished by padding one side of the wheel with 2 layers of wool felt.  The photo, right, shows the difference in thickness between the padded and unpadded sides.



Two felt wheels were cut using the same pattern used to cut the card backing.  They were whipstitched together then placed in between the card and the needlework.  I thought it might prove more difficult to lace the embroidery to the card because of the padding, but found it made no difference.









The needlework was then laced to the card.

I haven't included complete instructions for the assembly of a pinwheel because they can be downloaded free from Needleprint.




Here the flat side is being sewn to the wool felt spiral filling.


Erica instructs you to cut the wool strip, used for the spiral filling, to the same width as your ribbon.  For my padded pinwheel, the wool strip should be cut marginally narrower.  I cut mine about 1/16" narrower, giving me wiggle room to conceal the seam.  (When the padded side is sewn to the felt spiral filling, the padding makes the stitches slightly longer. )  

This side view shows how the padded side projects beyond the ribbon, and how the ribbon still conceals the stitches used to attach the needlework to the spiraled filling.




















It's a lovely little trifle that will add beauty to the Art of Embroidering.

Rambling Tudor Rose

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy..."

Shakespeare, Sonnet 33

Do you ever take your stitching on the road (rambling)?  On gorgeous spring or summer days I like to stitch in the sun - maybe pack an afternoon tea and blanket & head for the park, or somewhere more remote.  I find I don't need nearly as much magnification to do fine needlework in the sunshine - a good thing since you can easily start a fire with a magnifying lens!  




Here you see the Tudor Rose pattern done in speckling technique in shades of blue.  




The outline & hash marks were done in DMC Coton a border in color 799.










For the shading (speckling) I used 1 strand of DMC Mouline in colors 799 & 800.  I'd say 99% of the shading was done in 799, then I went back & filled in some of the darker areas with 800 just to give the shadow a bit more depth.




I decided to stitch the stamens in bullion stitch to give it a little more texture.  I'm very pleased with the effect.

I'm almost finished with the 2nd rose (same design), which will be used for the back of the pinwheel.

I had some difficulty finding the ribbon to trim my pinwheel.  This was because I didn't know the correct name for it!  I wanted to use the same ribbon Erica Uten used for the pinwheel featured on the cover of Tokens of Love.  After several sessions of searching for it online, I emailed Jacqueline Holdsworth  (of Needleprint ) for assistance.  As always, Jacqueline got back to me almost immediately, and with her information I was able to locate it.  The ribbon is called petersham ribbon & is available from Squirlgirl on etsy.  I really like the refined look this ribbon gives to Erica's pinwheel. I chose white rather than try to match my blue thread.  If you want the ribbon to match your embroidery thread, choose your ribbon before your threads because color selection is limited.

Now it's back to etsy to find wool to fill the pinwheel...