I know in March I promised to post about my present art projects for the Fifth Tuesday. Well, between working on Gardening (yes, still) and this website I haven’t really completed anything cool recently to show off. So I thought I would share a bit about my embroidery … you will be seeing a lot of it in the coming years.
Embroidery is in my top three passions. I love it in all of its forms: canvas work, blackwork, hardanger, drawn thread, lacis, smocking, goldwork, beadwork… The list goes on forever. I am a lifetime member of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America (EGA), though I do not participate in a local chapter at this time.
The fish above is a canvaswork pillow I worked in a variety of stitches in an attempt to qualify for Master Craftsman within the guild. To get the shading, I started with six different threads on a needle and changed one of the six to the next color in line every time I needed to rethread. I failed my first attempt for the master ranking, but I have not put away my needles just yet. Failure just means I had a learning opportunity (with a really nice pillow as a result).
After I get my writing together and in a production line, I plan to return to my embroidery full-force. In the meantime, I play. Like when I got this wonderful green fabric just begging to have the pattern enhanced with gold thread and red beads.
And sometimes I go all out when something special comes up, like my sister’s wedding. She requested to have an embroidered ring bearer’s pillow to be carried by my very young nephew (hence the thread to tie the rings down). German whitework inspired this hardanger and drawn thread design done on linen. I then assembled it with some satin fabric.
It’s cool to developed a skill, in my case embroidery, to the point one is capable of making family heirlooms like the ring pillow. Don’t know if it will survive until the next round of marriages in the family – white satin is not a friend of time – but for the moment I can point at it and say “I made this”.
