The other day I mentioned the antique needlework pieces Sharon from VA brought for show & tell.

Here they are.
First is a panel of flowers worked in queen stitch on a metal ground. My favorite kind of needlework is counted thread, and my favorite counted thread stitch is queen stitch. I may have a new favorite genre and stitch soon, though, I’m being introduced to so many new embroidery methods and other fiber techniques during these show & tell times.

Next up is the trim with a metal weft and sequins, although they didn’t come through very well in the photo.

More pretties tomorrow.

I maybe didn’t mention last night that stumpwork (Rosemary’s dragonfly) is 3-dimensional embroidery. It got that ugly name by accident, because sometimes the raised parts are worked over little bits of wood – stumps. Better name is raised work. So those wings are free from the cloth. The berry type things are really round. I need to get some digital photography lessons so these details show up better.

Abigail is relatively local, and she was able to come once before. This time she brought some of her beautiful handwork again, including the coif she made from the Plimoth Plantation pattern. Last time someone asked me for a better shot of the rose motif, and here it is. Abigail said, and I feel exactly the same way, that we’d like to re-do that coif (the pattern, in my case) with the benefit of the knowledge we’ve already gained from the jacket project. But we wouldn’t be here without having been there.

Abigail is trying on a gown, made for her by a friend in the SCA – the Society for Creative Anachronism.

One of the awesome, excellent parts of doing this jacket is that we’ve been able to get together different groups of people who might not ordinarily meet, people interested in embroidery in general, people who do historical reenactments, people who make lace but not embroidery, people who make embroidery but not lace, older people, younger people. It’s been really rewarding.

So go check out the SCA website. This session we had five embroiderers from the SCA, and since Laura the Extreme Costumer put a note on her blog, I think we’ll be having more, which is all to the good. Go say hi to her, too. I linked her website and her blog – two different places. She’s got a staggering amount of information, fascinating, useful, curious.

 I’ve been lax. Sorry everybody. 

If you requested to be signed up for a January session, consider yourself reserved a spot. I’m a little behind on sending out confirmations; I’ll get right on that as soon as I’m back in the office. 

Short, early post tonight.

We have a picture of Rosemary from MA sorting out what is the next step.

And a detail photo of Rosemary’s stumpwork dragonfly – stunning.

I’ve been hit with a truly nasty bug, which makes the simple sinus infection I’ve been fighting look like a lightweight, so I’m going to fall back on pretty pictures for a couple of days. Enjoy.

Wendy, Tricia, Carolyn and Robbin’s emails have been flying, sorting out what is the best pattern to use for the sample bobbin lace and moving ahead to the next steps.

Tricia has located a place that might be able to make us the tool we need for the spangles, although no one’s given up on Mark, we just know how many other irons he has in the fire (ooh – even a fever can’t keep me from making a pun!).

So everything’s moving along great, and if you’re interested in the bobbin lace kit, take heart, we’ll have it ready soon. If you’ve left a message for Kathy this week and haven’t heard back yet, don’t worry about that either; she’s off for a few days and will certainly be right on it when she comes back.

At the last session (which just ended Sunday evening) Carolyn, Robbin, Tricia, Wendy and I talked lace. Carolyn has made a spectacular sample of lace using the real-metal threads Tricia recommended, with sequins standing in for spangles. I was deep in conversation about logistics with Robbin and Carolyn when Tricia spirited the sample off to hold it up to the jacket, so I have no picture for you. What I DO have, thanks to Jen (thanks, Jen), is a link to HER photo of the lace sample held to the end of a sleeve. If you look carefully you can see one of the sequins. I actually got to hold this sample, and when I moved it even ever so gently, the sequins quivered. Quivered. They caught the light, they twinkled. I was mesmerized. Too wonderful.

Anyway, we’ve decided we can invite lacers to participate in a similar way as embroiderers. We’re creating a kit with a pattern (not the Laton pattern, more on that later), small amounts of the real metal threads we’ll be using for the jacket lace, sequins, and instructions. The cost of the kit will include a tax-deductible donation to Plimoth Plantation which will directly support the jacket project. We’ll be asking lacers to make a few repeats to send back to us. The kit will include sufficient materials to make more lace than that, though, so the lacer gets to keep some. We can add two or possibly three lacers to each embroidery session starting (hopefully) in January.

There are a couple of things we still have to do before the lace kits will be ready to send out. Tricia is ordering threads. Carolyn is developing a lace pattern based on two originals (the Laton lace and one from 17^th century Antwerp) which will incorporate the skills/techniques needed for the real lace. We can’t use the pricking she is developing of the real Laton lace because that pattern belongs to the V&A. We need to write directions and some other bits of text to include. We have to figure out how much it will cost (no more than the $40 that the embroidery kit does, though). We don’t know yet exactly when it will be ready, but we have a plan in place to let everyone know. If you want to get your name down, you can call or email Kathy (508-746-1622 X8114 or kroncarati@plimoth.org) now; she’s making a list. But don’t worry – there’s time. We can’t start making the lace until Mark, Tricia and Wendy have made spangles. They’re getting closer and closer. They’ve figured out how to do it and are looking for stock to cut them from.

For pictures tonight I have one of Kimberly from PA, and one of Kimberly’s hands working on the wings. The wings are the little shoulder flap things that get trimmed with lavish lace and sewn to the armhole.

Thanks, Rich, for setting me up with more categories to make everything easier to find.