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December 2008
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February 2009

January 2009

More drawn thread work

I found this hiding in a draw.  This was the beginning of a serious interest in drawn thread work.  I was living in North Queensland, had 2 babies and there was this little art shop that had embroidery as well.  They had all these old DMC books one of which was on draw thread work.  I found a couple of the books on the net.  The first in English by Dillmont Therese de called 'Drawn Thread Work'  and the second by the same author called 'Drawn Thread work 11' in French.  (These are free downloads, look under 'books').

I look back at this now and realize what a long way I have come.

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Drawn thread embroidery

I keep talking about my embroidery but never put many examples of my own work up.  Problem is, my scanner is on the blink.  But after a comment from Lorelei I have got my act together and started to scan them in on my husbands machine.

The first piece is a sampler I did to teach from.  I just divided the piece of linen, which is A4 size, into squares and worked from Moyra Mc Niels book.  For the teaching piece we made a needle book of one of the examples.  (Below the sample I have place a key to the stitches.)

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Text

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Pulled thread Embroidery

I have managed to get a copy of the  UDSKÅRSÖM book that I wrote about on the 18th of January.  I found a copy with a book dealer in Holland and it arrived today.  I must say that the service was quick and prompt. I ordered the book on the 19th of January and it arrived on the 27th.

 I still can't read Swedish and because the words are technical the translator on the computer isn't much good.  But some things I have been able to work out.  Like;

  1.  The patterns in the book are worked on even weave linen that ranges in thread count from 10 threads per cm to 20 threads per cm. 
  2. That it was originally embroidered in different weights of linen thread.
  3. That when a thread is withdrawn it was used to over sew the outside of the square in the design and not woven back into the fabric.
  4. There are only five (5) basic stitches and variation in the pattern is achieved by using different weighings of thread.

There are same illustrations showing how you do some stitches.

Udskarsom d2  Udskarsom d3

Udskarsom d4 Udskarsom d5

Next thing is to stitch a sample.


A new Book

I had almost forgotten that I had ordered this book.  But, it arrived today and it is fantastic.

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There is just so much in this book that I don't know where to begin.  I think that  the material about Elizabeth Fry is important because only one quilt survives. 

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I have three convict woman in my family tree. They all arrived in Australia in the 1790's.   One was transported because she couldn't pay a one pound fine, she was given to Corporal Lauchlan Ross and had 2 children.  He took his son when he left and she kept the baby girl.  Another because she stole alcohol from her employer, she was given to Corporal Thomas Tollis. They were married but she died in childbirth and he soon after as a result of a fall from a horse.  I have the Account of sale of their household effects and in this are listed 4 blankets.  Could one of these have been a quilt?  The last  was the mother of my great, great, grandmother and we don't even know her name, only that she was a convict.  All of these woman would have received a quilt parcel from Elizabeth Fry.  The stigma of being descended from a convict would have caused families to discard these items I think.  What a shame.

This book is full of the most wonderful pictures of quilts. This one on Page 39 by Mary Ann Wellen in 1860 has the most wonderful appliques.

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If you are interested in buying this book you can order it from Dr. Annette Gero


Back to work

Boy that was a shock!   Going back to work that is, and these were the student free days!  I certainly had slowed down it is hard to go from stationary to full speed in a short amount of time.

One good thing is that i have made progress on my first resolution which was to get into the healthy weight range.  I am now in about the middle of the over wieght range. Down from being borderline obese. (That is according to my Wii Fit )  I was having no luck with just exercise and watching my weight so I bought a copy of The Liver Cleansing Diet by Dr Sandra Cabot and it seems to have had some effect.

All this attention to diet has got me preparing food (which I know how to do as I teach Food and Nutrition) with more relish.  For the first time in over 20years I found that I had peaches left over so I poached them.

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The other thing that I will miss now that we are back at school is Oprah.  I really enjoyed sitting with my lunch and watching the show.  It even inspired me to clean out my pantry.  Well I'll just have to catch it on the web.

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Stitch Explorer 2009 - Chicken Scratch

Well one week down and 5 samples.  I just went and played using the traditional gingham, of which I have lots.

A. Looked at colour.

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B. Explored needle weaving

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C. A combination of different thickness of thread and threading

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D. Filling the white and red squares

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E. Not filling the white and red squares.

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There are so many variation one could go on forever but I go back to work tomorrow.


No 2 Pencil Case from Recycled Fabric

DSCF0027 This is a Download No 2 Pencil Case I have designed for an extension activity for beginner sewers.  You could use any kind of fabric and applique or use decorative stitches or even an embroidery.   You could change the size to suit what you need.  Only note of caution, don't make it too small, it doesn't work.  It cost less than 50 cents plus your time.


UDSKÅRSÖM

I have no idea what this word means but I was going through the discussions on Stitchin Fingers and came upon a question about Swedish embroidery.  One was a reply from Gunnel Svensson  and among the books she quoted was this one.

Udskarsom


My interest was immediately engaged as this was a form of white work I had never seen before.  It looks like a mixture of a variety of techniques but it was new to me.  Back to Stitchin Fingers again to post a query. 

One of the members replied. Marg B had found a copy of this book at  Ralph Griswold's site.  I have used this site so many times but just never thought of it in this instant.  I have Downloaded the book but the copy just isn't at a high enough resolution to see the stitching in detail.  There were some sample pages on a Japanese site  and this seemed to include details of how to do the stitches.   I am going to have to get an original copy.

Udskarsom d3


Gingham

As Chicken Scratch is usually done on gingham and this is the first technique in the"Stitch Explorer Challenge", I thought I would get out what fabric I had and maybe learn the stitches as I have never done this technique before.  Oh my goodness! Do I have some gingham fabric.  I had no idea there was this much in my stash and I've just cleaned out.

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Let me tell you, you should use a hoop.  My first experiment wasn't very successful in the tension department.  I have decided to make a series of bookmarks to get the stitch right.  Surfing around I found some great bookmark sites.  That sounds weird but you would be surprised at just how many sites there are about bookmarks.

I like the National Geographic site to make simple bookmarks for kids.  But the site I really like is 'The Art of Bookmark'.  There are some wonderful pieces here.  I think I like the Ethnic category the best.

LZ_Nepal_bamboo_red  Indian-painted-leaf-1 LZ_Corn_Leaf_Lady_2

Well it's back to experimenting with that stitch again, I hope with more success this time.