Tudor Rose - Part 1

Life continues to be busy but I still (determinedly) make time for some stitching most days. Now that the finer weather is here stitching time competes with gardening time and lately the garden has been winning. The pond has been planted and we now have some fish. The borders around the pond and patio are mostly planted; the plants soften the hard edges and make the pond/patio/lawn look more integrated. The evenings have been sufficiently pleasant to allow us to eat our dinner on the patio and linger with a glass of wine until bed time!

Earlier in the year I did another online gold work class with Thistle Threads. This was a short course (3 months) that complimented the much longer (18 months) Tudor and Stuart Gold Master Class but each class is stand along and they could be taken in any order. The Tudor Rose class focuses on composite stitches that combine silk and metallic threads.

In lesson one we worked on the stems and two of the leaves from each spray of five leaves. The stem is worked in two passes; first a foundation is stitched in Soie Perlee, this is then laced with a gold wire.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

My first attempt at the stitch (which I forgot to take a picture of) was not very successful. I made the foundation stitches too small and was not able to lace the gold wire through them. On my second attempt I made the foundation stitches twice as big, this made the lacing much easier. In hindsight I think these foundation stitches are a little too large and that 1.5 times the original size would have been sufficient.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The first two leaves on each stem where all worked in the same way. Each leaf was outlined with reverse chain stitch using Soie Perlee and then filled with rows of reverse chain stitches alternating between Soie Perlee and gold wire. Again, I think that I could have made the stitches a bit smaller.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching