Needlework Nibbles

I have been following The Embroiderer’s Story for sometime now. In addition to the beautiful embroidery, the blog is a full of information about the history, materials and stitches of 16th century embroidery. Now there is a newsletter to provide even more information about techniques and materials of this period.

The topic of the first edition, published in May, was gold threads. Some of the threads are familiar to me, but Tricia introduced a new thread that she has developed together with Benton and Johnson - Gilt Tambour Special. The thread is supple with little over twist so it can be stitched with rather than couched.

Tricia has designed a range of taster kits to give stitchers an opportunity to try out the techniques and materials discussed in each newsletter. The first kit features Gilt Special Tambour.

'Strawberry Gobelin Fob' has a small strawberry motif worked in queen stitch. I have never encountered queen stitch before and had to look it up. Each queen stitch consists of 4 vertical stitches that wach start in the top center hole and finish in the bottom center hole and is couched in the middle to form a filled diamond shape. In this design the stitch is worked over 4 threads horizontally and vertically. I found it a very fiddly stitch to work, especially at this scale.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The motif is stitched in one strand of Au Ver a Soie Paris. This is the first time I have worked with this thread and found it a total joy to stitch with. Mary Corbit did a comparison of twisted silk threads, including Soie Paris on Needle'nThread.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The background is stitched in gobelin stitch using Gilt Special Tambour. An other new thread and another new stitch for me. I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Stitching