I referred to my Day Job again yesterday. Here’s a picture of one of the three new interpreters we dressed (i.e. prepared a full set of period clothing for) over the last two weeks. She started on site last Saturday and is having a great time. Thought you’d like to see what we’ve been up to. (Ooof. Just copied the photo to Bloggie & have to apologize for the poor quality. Uncharacteristically, I only took the one.)

 

Thanks to everyone who chimed in on the reversible embroidery question. I’ll post some excerpts from the comments:

 

Linda V, whose reversible embroidery I showed in last week’s post, wrote:

Good question, Jill. Both the cross stitch with an extra leg and the one on my piece are known in various places as marking stitch. There’s also a reversible cross stitch where only one half of one leg is doubled on the back and one half of one leg is doubled on the front. The last technique I know has a full cross with no legs doubled on either side, but it’s done in two separate passes.

 

Karla says:

The marking cross as I learned it does indeed have an extra leg. There are some commercial patterns and class that teach it. Montenegrin is another stitch that is reversible.

There is another stitch that is truly reversible cross stitch. One comes up in the center of the stitch and at least some of the legs are actually two half crosses butted up against each other. It’s called the 7 stitch marking stitch. I learned it in a class from Drawn Thread and haven’t seen it elsewhere, so it’s probably not an historic stitch. But it does make a totally reversible, identical cross.

 

Linda, like a number of our volunteer embroiderers, is also an embroidery teacher. She has designed a small sampler which teaches four methods of making a reversible cross stitch. I think she brought it to the session – is it the little alphabet one that was hemmed? Anyway, she wondered if anyone (that is, anyone besides me) would like to know where to buy copies of that pattern. If you send me the info, Linda, I’ll post it. If there’s a link send that too.

 

The second photo is of Carol’s hand working on a foxglove. It’s from Lilia’s series of “hands” images from the September session. You can see the magnifier to the left.

 

Tricia is writing today, and I can’t tell you how pleased I was to see this “blog kit” in my inbox – truly pennies from heaven. My Day Job is demanding my attention right now, and I’m also fighting a nasty sinus germ. Thanks so much, Tricia, for jumping in. And I’m glad you and your family had such a great visit to Plimoth.

 

The Crafts Center

I mentioned in the blog weeks ago that one of our goals has been realized – stitching in front of the public in the Crafts Center. I visited this weekend with my family and was able to get you all photographs to see how we are doing this. Pictured are Kate and the wonderful visuals she uses to educate the visitors about embroidery of the period and the jacket project. Kate is embroidering on the coif in this picture. I was excited to see that a sample was there showing detached buttonhole up-close and she had the instructions from the blog for the stitch laid out for people to see.

If you wonder what the sign says, well it’s the answer to the most often
asked question – "When will that be finished?" She says that her "When It’s Done" sign gets a laugh from the visitors and breaks the ice so they will begin to ask her questions. Of course, you almost had to pick me up off the floor when I saw it. Doesn’t that resonate with all of us who have embroidered in front of others before!

You may be able to see in the background a number of photos mounted of jackets and portraits. We talked at length about other ‘wishes’ we have for visuals, information that could be mounted nearby or other take-aways. This is an unusual opportunity to reach a cross-section of the public and we want to take full advantage of that within the mission
of Plimoth Plantation. On that note, when I am talking to individuals in the embroidery community, they are most excited about this aspect of the project. Often stitchers will ask me "have you thought about approaching group XYZ or ABC about getting involved?" The answer is usually, "YES – we have thought about it, but we are so busy trying to keep the basic jacket stitching going that we haven’t gotten to that part yet.”

The reality is that this project is not officially funded yet – we had to start before that process is complete or else we wouldn’t get it done in time. So we don’t yet have the manpower to do all the things we would like to do and that seem a natural extension of the project. Well, tonight I am going to put the challenge out to our readers to be local helpers. Many of you belong to organizations who are interested in public outreach – think about ways you could use the project to outreach in your area and we will try to help. Or, think about ways you could support what we are doing and contact us. For those who have stitched on the project, the Plimoth Plantation public relations office has been contacting their local newspapers to place stories.

We have found that the fashionable aspect of this object has really ignited an interest in younger women and girls that come in contact with the project – how could you use it in your area to generate interest in history, culture, and embroidery? As outreach we put the instructions for the stitches on-line and have heard from many of you how much you have appreciated them.  In fact, we have been notified that a guild is using the instructions as part of a fall program – that is wonderful! We are getting orders for the sample kits from this region and thank you very much for helping to fund the project and spread the knowledge in one effort!  What can you do in your area?

Tricia

I’ve got some fixing to do, again. The other night when I was having trouble with Bloggie I referred to this picture of Norma’s embroidered butterfly top, but didn’t include the picture. MJ caught the omission and kindly left a comment. Then Norma added that it wasn’t actually her FIRST embroidery, it’s the earliest one she still has.

 

MJ also asked for a more detailed photo of Abigail’s coif, especially the rose motif. Here’s the best I can do with what I have, but Abigail is relatively local and if this doesn’t serve the turn I can probably get some more pictures.

 

These are Penny’s hands. Penny is the newest tailor in the Colonial Wardrobe Department. Last summer she worked at Plimoth Plantation as a Textiles Artisan in the Crafts Center, and from 1999-2001 she was a tailor in Colonial Wardrobe. I’m so glad she’s back, and I think she’s very happy too. This past session she did her first stitching on the jacket. And a lovely little flower bud it is, too.

 

Before I get myself into another OOOPS moment here, can someone chime in on reversible stitches? Linda’s embroidery is cross stitch on the front and four-sided stitch on the back, so both sides are beautiful but I guess that’s not strictly reversible. Kate’s hanky is truly reversible in that the pattern is the same on both sides. It is stitched in double-running or Holbein stitch. I think there are some kinds of cross stitches that have an extra “leg” that look the same, or almost the same, on the front and back. Is that called “marking cross stitch”?

 

I love comments. Tell what you know.

Today I had the first sign-up for a double embroidery session in January. Yay, Judy! Judy will be joining us for a full week of stitching, good company and great food. Want to come keep Judy company?  Email me jhall@plimoth.org to hold your spot. Here’s the dates again:

 

Tuesday, December 11 – Friday, December 14

 

            Tuesday, January 8 – Friday, January 11

 

            Friday, January 11 – Monday, January 14

 

            Sunday, January 20 – Wednesday, January 23

 

            Wednesday, January 23 – Sunday, January 27

 

            Friday, February 8 – Monday, February 11

 

            Monday, February 11 – Thursday, February 14

 

            Friday, February 29 – Monday, March 3

 

            Monday, March 3 – Thursday, March 6

 

Tonight, at least one more show & tell post. Here are several of the items Linda brought to show. The second pictures is a spot sampler Linda is still working on. Look closely, and also go see THE BIG PHOTO. The embroidery is folded; the part on the left is actually the back, on the right is the front.

 

The most interesting part of this project to me is that Linda didn’t set out to make a reversible embroidery. She was having trouble getting the legs of her cross-stitch to stand up crisply on the soft linen, so she switched to a different stitch, a reversible one, which gave her the look she wanted on the front. Because she’s so meticulous and technically skilled, she got a perfect reversible embroidery.

 

This is the same Linda who had a bobbin lace revelation at the September session. Carolyn brought a beginner lace pillow set up for anyone to try. Linda did, and realized her previous bad experience with bobbin lace had way more to do with the materials she was using than the lace itself (see yesterday’s comments). She’s still quietly resisting taking on another fiber hobby, but happily now just because there aren’t enough hours in the day, not because she thinks lace is awful, hard, and No Fun At All.

I owe a technical post, and I’ll get there, but I’m still recovering from the weekend. I do not have the stamina of this session’s embroiderers, that is for sure.

 

Tonight, more from the show & tell. Lyn is working on a reproduction of the Jane Bostocke sampler. This one is notable for a few different reasons, all of which I’ll probably mix up, necessitating another Ooops post. I believe this is among the very first dated samplers. It also has the maker’s name on it, unusual for the early date. It has spot motifs as well as double-running stitch bands. It records the birth date and time of a girl baby. Common wisdom is that birthdays weren’t much noted in this period, that only royalty or other very high-born people remembered them and that when a day was remembered it was usually the baptism day, not the birth day. So why was the Alice Lee’s birthday memorialized in embroidery? In any case, Lyn’s work is just beautiful. (Click that link to see the whole piece to date.)

 

Lyn’s work was also amazingly resonant. The blackwork picture is a cap of Abigail’s, done in one of the patterns on the Bostocke sampler repeated outward in both directions. Meticulous work and fun for us to see a possible application for the patterns on the sampler.