I’m glad you enjoyed the pink words and pictures. I had fun putting it together.

Melanie Anne, the “living jacket garden” idea is still being tossed around, it may happen in conjunction with the exhibit that the jacket will be part of, which would mean next year.

Colleen, I’m afraid the children’s schedule is still very fluid – we’ll be having some orientation and “pretend” interpreting (as if all interpreting weren’t pretend. . . ) after school lets out here, which is this week. I’ll let you know more when I hear.

Sandy, I was sure about the gillyflower pronunciation till you asked about it, then I really wondered! I checked the OED which has gill and jill pronounced the same as early as the first reference, which is 1400s. Thanks for asking.

Laura, I can’t wait to see you either!

Mark brought us 101 spangles. After all the time and effort he and others put in, it may seem like a very small pile of result. But there was great rejoicing.

Carolyn wound bobbins. Due to a greater demand for the lace kits than we’d anticipated and a longer delivery time on the gold & silver lace threads, she had to ration the remaining thread and carefully plan how many bobbins to wind. (Don’t worry, though, more thread is on the way.)

We measured and measured the embroidery pieces to determine how long the lace pieces should be. Carolyn decided to start with the pieces that will go along the shoulder wings.

Wendy and Carolyn strung the spangles onto the lace thread and then wound the thread onto the bobbins.

Carolyn made lace. It seemed to Wendy and me that the work went really fast. Every time we peeked, there was more to see. Carolyn thought it took a very long time. It came out to about an inch per hour.

Robbin’s here today making lace and Melanie Anne is embroidering. I’ll have those pictures Monday. I also owe you one more post from Tricia.

On February 29, our intern Alex worked on the jacket for the first time. Here are her hands stitching a peapod.

At that session we also had another new embroiderer, Myrna. Melanie Anne decided that the state of Maine was under-represented among the embroidery corps, so she persuaded her friend to come down with her. Myrna is pretty new to this type of embroidery so she practiced for the morning and then worked reverse chain outlines.

The last picture for today is of Melanie Anne stitching a thistle top in Gilt Sylke Twist bisse.

The office was a little beehive today, with five volunteers joining us. The hand sewing on three shirts was finished plus part of a fourth was done; a great deal of stab-stitching on a pair of breeches and a cassock was also accomplished. Meredith spent part of her birthday volunteering; we wish her many happy returns of the day. I got a phone lesson from Rich on managing the new forum, and Robbin volunteered to help moderate, which offer I immediately and gratefully accepted. Welcome to everyone who signed up, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, please go see.

Yesterday was the first day of a new embroidery session. This time we’re in the Wardrobe office; Accomack is being renovated. So much happened yesterday that it seemed like several days, and it will probably take me several days to tell you all about it.

For now, here’s a picture of Tricia getting everyone up to speed with the stitching manuals and the data collection sheets. We had two returning embroiderers (Rosemary and Melanie Anne) and four new ones. That’s our intern Alex in the front. She’s been practicing the embroidery stitches for several weeks, and yesterday was moved to the real jacket. She stitched a fine pea pod, and was justifiably proud of it.

In the middle of the day I asked her how it was going, working on the jacket after stitching on a doodle cloth, and she said that at first when Tricia said it was time for her to move to the jacket she thought – wait! don’t I need to practice some more? I think it’s like that for most people the first time they stitch on the real piece.

We had so many people working yesterday that Penny, Shaina and Kelley had to rearrange the office and set up two long tables to accommodate everyone. It kind of looks like a sweat shop, doesn’t it?

One of the many things that happened yesterday was a productive meeting of the spangle questers. More on that, with photos, soon.

1. Are you going to Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, NH May 2 – 5? Would you like to stop in Plymouth coming or going to stitch on the jacket? We’re having “shoulder sessions” the couple of days before and after. Call me [508-746-1622 X 8119] or email jhall@plimoth.org to sign up.

2. Thank you to everyone who weighed in on the Mystery of Melanie Anne’s grandmother’s embroideries. I love starting conversations here that continue in the comments. I’m looking forward to unveiling the forum so we can have even more conversations.

3. Speaking of conversations in the comments, I should have clarified what I meant by our experimenting with using reeds as stiffeners in stays (corsets). We have used marsh reeds, the sort native to this area, that maybe perhaps the early colonists might have used if they made or repaired stays. (That, and getting reeds native to England that might have come over in already-sewn stays was Too Much.) I have heard of using basketry reeds to stiffen stays as a substitute for the unavailable whalebone. I tried that a few years ago, but the reed we got came in a coil. I cut it to size and filled the channels, but it kept shifting and curling. I was told to soak it to take the curl out, and I tried, BUT it still curled. How to describe…it didn’t curl against or away from the body of the wearer, but sideways. It did not look good. I gave up on the basketry reed.

4. Picture! Catherine from Kansas came to a session in January with her friend Deb. The weather they left at home was so cold we joked that they’d had a beach vacation in Plymouth. This is one of the exquisite pieces Catherine brought for show & tell.