This is a photo of the Sunday, September 28, 2008 volunteer embroidery crew. They are holding out of service frames.

That’s what I said when I saw this photo. (I was off yesterday, so I found this about 9:30 last night.)

So that’s Cheryl on the left in the back, holding the frame with the collar and cuff pieces. The cuffs are done except for gold (and all the stuff that comes after the gold, like sewing on the detached pieces and the round sequins), and the collar is completely done. Next to the right is Sharon, Sharon the Trefoil Queen from last winter. Sharon has some of the gussets over her shoulder (they’re all done but gold, and gave up their frame a while ago to make another piece more manageable). She’s holding the left front, all done but gold.

Next to the right is Debbie, holding the frame with the rest of the gussets and the upper right sleeve, both only waiting for gold and what comes after. Behind her is Deb. Deb came out from Kansas last winter with Catherine, who is in the back next to Deb. In the winter they brought us chocolates and a coffee maker; this time they brought a huge box of chocolate treats and their friend Sandye, who is standing in front of Catherine holding the forehead cloth. Deb is holding a sleeve which is all done but gold, Catherine is holding the right front on which right now as I type Sandye is stitching the very last worm. When she’s done that piece will be all done but gold.

The forehead cloth has only 1 1/2 borage and 1 1/2 pansies left to do. The coif has a bit more. Both the coif and the forehead cloth were put aside during the sessions when we had more jacket pieces than stitchers. It doesn’t matter, in fact it would be good, if the coif & forehead cloth weren’t done at the same time as the jacket, then we can have embroidery demonstrations as part of the exhibit. So we’re very not worried about that. (Secretly I’m a little pleased - my day job has prevented my doing as much as I’d like on the jacket so now I have a little more chance to shirk my real work and play embroidery.)

Next to the right of Sandye is Carli, holding the back. There are a couple of worms and a couple of leaves still to do on the back, but they amount to maybe a day or two of work, and Carli is still working as I write.

Next to Carli, in the back, is Joanna, holding one of the sleeve pieces and Norma, next to her, is holding another. Joanna worked here in the Colonial Wardrobe Department in the early 1990s, and designed the embroidered coif kit with that great instruction booklet that is so beloved by embroiderers. I was very glad Joanna was able to join us. She, Norma and Cheryl mostly worked on detached pieces this weekend. Norma stitched thirteen detached butterfly wings. Wow. They finished all the detached pieces except two that Tricia wants to do personally, and a couple for the coif & forehead cloth.

Jennifer has been here this weekend but isn’t in the photo; she was felled by a migraine on Sunday, probably because of the plunging barometric pressure from Hurricane Kyle which was charging towards Maine (Jennifer’s home) and dumping rain on us over the weekend.

And that’s Wendy in front, of course. On Saturday, after Melinda left, Wendy clapped her hands and said,”OK. Company’s gone, out comes the whip.”

What does this mean? Well, we have a few odds & ends of embroidery, but not enough to schedule a  session. Local embroiderers may still come a day here or there to work on things, and of course there is lace to make. I’ll have three lace makers here for a weekend in November. We’ve got the beginnings of a gold plan. As we get the coiling vines done on each piece, it will go back into service for the little gold bits, the sewing-on of the detached pieces and the sequins. So if you’ve been wanting to come work on this project, don’t despair, there is more to do. I will of course make any new session announcements here.

Thank you to everyone who has come to embroider or make lace, who has bought an embroidery kit or lace kit, who has excitedly told a friend or neighbor about what’s going on over at Plimoth, who has read this blog, who has left a comment …. we couldn’t have come this far without each and every one of you. That sounds rather final, doesn’t it? It isn’t. This is a milepost only. I’ll still be posting almost every day. Keep visiting this week as I share with you all the magnificent needlework treasures from the latest show & tell.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 10:03 am and is filed under Progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.