In Which I Loaf
And let Linda V from Arizona write tonight’s post. Linda came to Plymouth last summer to work on the jacket. She also offered to work at home on a project for us. She’s reproducing a red silk double-running stitch-embroidered handkerchief from the V & A (where else?) that we can use either in the upcoming exhibit or in some of our living history programs.
The first picture is the front, with a dime for scale. The second is the back. Linda wrote:
It’s an interesting project and I’m enjoying working on it. At 55 count it’s a new experience for me to have to use magnification to do the job! It is a slow go however. What you see in the photos is roughly 30 hours of work. About 10 hours of work per flower/repeat. I’m going forward, but it will not be a quick project. 
Lyn from Canada taught Linda a nifty technique for anchoring the thread without a knot. Linda writes: Nan Euler’s Surface Anchoring method is working well. It is a little challenging to do it at this scale, but I love that you hardly see the beginning or ending of the threads.
Elmsley Rose did a whole blog entry about the S and Z twist that we’ve been talking about. Check it out HERE.
Tags: , Arizona, Canada, ElmsleyRose, handkerchief, Linda V, lyn, red silk, V&A
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:19 am
Linda, such beautiful work, you must have incredible patience.
CA
June 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Well…I can’t say this is a relaxing piece to stitch, but it is worthwhile. A pair of headphones, a good book or some good music on the CD player and I’m soon in a world of my own. Life is good. Getting to recreate a museum piece - even better.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Hi Linda
Your work on the handkerchief is really good. Are you willing to part with the intructions
on finishing the thread so well?
Regards Lynn.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Lynn,
Thank you for the kind words about my stitching. The instructions on beginning and ending the threads the way I am is not mine to share. This method was created by Nan Euler.
She teaches needlework through the EGA. Lyn has taken classes from her and received Nan’s permission to share this technique with me to use on the handkerchief.
I believe that many of Nan’s techniques are available as correspondence classes through the EGA. Lyn will know better than I, but there is some information on one of her classes on this website, just scroll down to the second project. http://www.egausa.org/files/education_catalog/2007/EdCat07/html/EdCat07_26.html
Best of luck!
Linda
June 6th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I thought about it a bit overnight and while I can’t tell you specificaly about the stitch I’m using, I can tell you that it is similar to other stitches genericaly called “pin head stitch.” If you Google that term you will be able to find instructions for a similar type of stitch. I can’t speak for how well that technique holds, so might want to try it on a doodle cloth before you use it on a piece you will be putting a lot of work in to.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
My friend Beth Katz has directions for the pinhead stitch on her website, and has given me permission to share it: http://home.comcast.net/~bethkatz/stitch/pinhead.html
Lynn
June 9th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hi Linda.
Thank you for your reply and the information. I am familiar with the pin head stitch and looked on the EGA web site at the band sampler. I have looked at this sampler many times, maybe one day I will
sign up for it.
I’m looking forward to seeing your finished handkerchief.
Regards Lynn.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Beautiful work on the handkerchief!
Is the actual museum piece shown on-line anywhere?
June 24th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I am so glad you asked that question! It made me go and look again at the V&A website. I had looked earlier under the handkerchief’s museum number and found that the photo associated on the V&A website with that number was a rug of some sort. I’m sure it’s a lovely rug and that rug lovers everywhere would drool over the photo, but it’s not a handkerchief.
This time I looked for “handkerchief” under search the collections and what should I find but a photo of most of the handkerchief! You can’t quite see all the piece. One corner is covered by a mourning handkerchief of Queen Victoria’s. As I remember Jill saying that the V&A is touhcy about direct links, go to the V&A website (www dot VAM dot ac dot uk). Once there, click on search the collections (second column from the right, middle of the page) and type “handkerchief” into the box. On the first page (third row, fourth column) there is a thumbnail of four hankies, ours is the one with the red embroidery.
There are other hankies worth taking a look at on that page. Especially the two cutwork pieces on that page (third row, second and third columns) and on the second page of hankies, the needle lace piece (first row, first column).
Thanks too for the nice compliment! Those are always appreciated.