Floral Glove, finished

I have finally finished my Floral Glove Scissor Case. I feel like this project has taken me a very long time. Indeed, it has been my evening project since April and, although I have not worked on it solidly, it has taken a great many (uncounted) hours of work.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I seriously underestimated how much work this would be, especially the finishing. I am not complaining at the amount of time invested. The project was part of an online course offered by Thistle Threads that extended over six months. The embroidery materials were sent at the beginning of the course and a further pack of finishing supplies was sent later. The instructions were released for down load in monthly instalments together with a history section. The cost of the course, at $35 per month, was not trivial but I think I’ve had good value for money. The materials are all of the finest quality. The instructions are comprehensive with both written directions and lots of step-by-step photographs. The history section is equally comprehensive with each month taking a detailed look at the materials and techniques used to create the exquisite Stuart period gauntlets that inspired this project.

Thistle Threads listed this course under their On-line University so I think that it is reasonable for the project itself to be substantial and challenging. It was naive of me to imagine I could complete it in 3 or 4 weeks! In fairness, I have dragged my feet over the finishing part. This is my least favourite part of any project. I’ve pushed myself to do it (by banning myself from starting my next project until it was done) and I am very glad that I did. Not only do I love the finished article but I have learned some useful finishing methods along the way.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Tricia of Thistle Threads has said that she will offer this course again if there is sufficient interest. If you are remotely interested in taking this course, contact Tricia. I’ve learnt a lot from the course and highly recommend it.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Ribbons and Lace

Nearly every project I choose to do is because I want to do the embroidery rather than actually wanting the finished item. Once the embroidery is complete, my attention is drawn to the next project. I have a lot of UFO’s. For the most part, I am completely content with this. There are a few items that I occasionally think "I must get around to finishing that someday" but it is highly unlikely that I ever will. There are too many things to be embroidered and too many techniques to be learnt.

Given the time and effort I put into my Japanese Embroideries, I do finish those and recently I have taken part in a few swaps, so I am compelled to finish those. When I started Floral Glove, I resolved that I would 'finish' it but as soon as the embroidery was done, my interest wavered and I have found it very difficult to find the motivation to do the finishing work. As an incentive (more a stick than a carrot) I have banned myself from starting anything new until it is done. This has succeeded mainly in preventing me from doing any stitching and that makes me miserable!

Another sticking point for me is that the directions call for many of the component parts to be glued. Even though finishing Japanese embroidery involves pasting the back of the embroidery with glue made from wheat powder, I am still very adverse to gluing textiles. Once I had resolved to stitch, rather than glue, where possible, I felt more inclined to get on with it.

Before beginning the actual construction of the scissor case, there were a couple of trims to add to the embroidered linen. Gold lace is used to outline the gauntlet.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The bottom of the gauntlet is trimmed with a bright red, double faced satin ribbon. Elizabethan twist is first stitched to one edge together with spangles stitched at intervals along the same edge. The ribbon is then gathered along the opposite edge and slip-stitched in place.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I attached both the lace and ribbon before removing the linen from the frame.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The kit comes with many of the finishing materials already die cut. Some of these pieces have to be cut in half or trimmed to a smaller size but having the basic shape pre-cut is a big bonus point in my view. The embroidered linen is applied to one of the pieces of die cut mount board with a layer of wadding between them. The instructions said to glue the wadding to the board and then fold the edges of the linen over the board and glue down on the back. I could see no alternative to gluing the wadding to the board but I laced the linen on the reverse of the board instead of gluing it.

Silk brocade is supplied for the inside of the scissor case. One piece is used to cover a die-cut piece of skirting. Again the instructions said attach the silk by folding the edges over and gluing them to the back; again I stitched the two layers together but this time with tacking stitches that I later removed. A needle felt is attached to the lining with a small stitch in each corner; I used some of the remaining spangles rather than plain stitches. The embroidered front and silk lining are then joined, wrong sides together, with ladder stitch.

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - August

The decorating is finally finished (all bar a couple of small jobs the electrician has to come back to do). It still took the first to weekends in July to finish everything. The following weekend we gave the kitchen a thorough spring clean. The next Saturday I spent at Art in Action and Sunday was generally tidying up in preparation for visitors. J’s sister and brother-in-law were over from Amsterdam for the last week of July and, of course, we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. You’ve guessed it; I’ve not had much time for embroidery!

With little time and little motivation it has been slow going doing the finishing on Floral Glove, but I am getting there and if I knuckle down to it, this should be finished in time for September’s report.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I’ve started the beading on Floral Melody, hoorah! I have been doing a little bit before work each day for the past week. I estimate that this will take me approximately 130 hours and I want to complete it by Christmas. There are only 144 days until Christmas so I have to aim to average about an hour a day, every day. Eek!

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I completed one more Travelling Page this month. These have been such fun to do and this one was a theme particularly close to my heart. I have three more TP’s to do in this series and another in a different vein.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Spangles and Pearls

All that is needed to complete the embroidery is a little embellishment with a few seed pearls and spangles.

One seed pearl is stitched into the centre of the gold leaves on each of the outer roundels. Nothing too difficult here, I just had to select pearls that would fit into the available space and that had a big enough hole to fit the beading needle; these are teeny tiny little pearls.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

A cluster of pearls is added to the centre of the rose. I thought that the gold outline made this rose but the pearl centre really makes it. I think this is so pretty.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Finally, tiny gold spangles are stitched into the empty spaces between the embroidered motifs. I wasn’t feeling too well when I did this. I had enough interest/energy to do a little mindless stitching but I could not be bothered to redraw the outline of the glove or to measure where they should go. I guestimated their position and a couple are outside the seam line so I will have to reposition those.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

It is difficult to capture the sparkle of the spangles on camera but they really glitter and glint as the embroidery moves in the sunlight.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

And this is the back!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Rough Purl Leaves

On the remaining roundels the tendrils are couched sections of Gilt Super Lizardine that has been stretched to about 30 per cent more than its original length.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The leaves are then covered with pieces of Gilt Rough Purl, which is a tightly wound spring made from a round wire. It has a slightly matt finish that gives a nice contrast to the bright check used in the central roundel.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I found the rough purl slightly easier to handle than the bright check but found it more difficult to cut the pieces to a precise length even with the aid of a magnifying lamp.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Bright Check Leaves

When we demonstrate Japanese embroidery, people often say "that must take a lot of patience". I enjoy embroidery so much, become so absorbed in the process, that I find it more relaxing than something that requires patience. But the next step on Floral Glove certainly did take a lot of patience!

I’d had a taste of how painstaking this process would be when covering the calyx with coloured purl. The leaves in the middle roundel are covered with bright check – a triangular shaped wire formed on a three cornered needle. If anything, the bright check is even more springy than the purl and the leaves are very much smaller that the calyx. Measuring and cutting the tiny pieces needed to cover each leave was very fiddly.

An even greater test of one’s patience is sewing the pieces into place. Bright check is made from a very fine flattened wire and it is near impossible to cut without leaving a small tail sticking out. Silk threads have an amazing ability to snag on the slightest thing so sliding the ‘beads’ of bright check onto the silk thread is rather like trying to put silk stockings onto barbed wire!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy this part but it really did test my patience. But, boy was it worth it. The triangular segments spiral around the wire creating a faceted surface that glitters and sparkles like no other thread. This is the blingiest of BLING!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - July

Perhaps I should write a progress report on the decorating since most of my days off have been devoted to that! I’d love to report that it is finished but alas it is not. It is however very nearly finished.

I had one day out to play with beads with a friend. I also had an entire weekend of stitching when I managed to finish the gold work on Floral Glove. I then had a couple of days off sick but felt so lethargic that attaching a few spangles and seed pearls was all I could muster enthusiasm for. I even managed to get a few of the spangles in the wrong place so I will have to redo those! All of the embroidery on Floral Glove is completed; I now have to make it up into a scissor case. I am far more motivated to do the embroidery than the finishing so this has languished the last few days. However, I am determined that this will get finished so have banned myself from starting anything new until it is done.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I have also made significant progress on my Japanese bead embroidery, although I have not actually attached any beads! I did the finishing on Poppy Pouch and removed it from the frame then moved Floral Melody from its temporary frame onto frame three. This is a psychological milestone rather than physical progress. It means that I can now begin beading Floral Melody in earnest and frame 4 is also available for a new project but I haven’t decided what that is going to be yet!

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

On the subject of Poppy Pouch, I have been working on a crochet rope handle for the pouch in the evenings. My friend Sue taught me how to make a crochet rope a little over a year ago. Since then I had been making a rope with Black FAB (frosted aurora borealis) beads that appear to be dark denim blue. Initially, I really struggled with the technique and made very slow progress. I kept the beads and crochet hook in my handbag and worked on it when I had some time on my hands. When we broke down in the snow last December, I whiled away the hours waiting for the tow truck with this project. A few weeks ago, I started doing some in the evenings; it doesn’t require too much brain activity so is nice to do when I am too tired for anything more demanding. Somewhere along the line the penny dropped and I finally crocheted a length long enough to make a necklace.


Buoyed by that success, I threaded the beads for the handle in a 2 white, 1 gold repeat on white thread. I’m not entirely sure when I started work but I managed to make a couple of inches every time I worked on it and over the course of the month made enough rope for the handle.


Looking back at the first post in this series, I am reminded that my aim was not merely to report what I had done but to actually set myself some goals. My goal for frame 1 was to finish Loving Couple so that the frame was ready for Camellias. I met that goal, so my new goal for frame 1 is to complete Camellias by February 2012. That seems easily achievable but I know how things can languish so must keep reminding myself of this goal. For now though, Camellias is resting!

Embroidery Bridge Between East and West on frame 2 is also resting. The goal for this project is to have it finished by the end of the year. Again, that seems easily achievable but this dead line is a low priority so it may not get done.

Floral Melody is now on frame 3. My goal is to complete this by the end of the year. This deadline is my highest priority.

My immediate priority is to finish the Floral Glove.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Roundels

I’d been looking forward to stitching the roundels. I’d had a look at the lovely gold wires used for this part of the embroidery and could not wait to use them. The oval shape of each roundel is treated in the same way, with three lines of gold wire. The middle line is applied first. The wire used here Gilt #1 Lizardine. Lizardine is made from a flattened wire formed into a tightly coiled spring (so is smooth purl but I’m not certain what the difference between the two is). Lizardine can be used as it is supplied but on this design it is slightly stretched and wrapped around a silk core. Easier said than done!

The lizardine is left in one piece but stretched a short length at a time to 25-30% longer than its original length. I grasped a 3 cm length firmly between my finger nails and slowly stretched the length of wire until it measured 4 cm, then repeated this with the next 3 cm length, and so on until I had stretched the entire length. The difficult part is making sure that each length is stretched a consistent amount (you can’t unstretch it) and not to damage the part you are grasping with your finger nails. The first little bit of stretch resists you but you must resist the temptation to pull too hard, once the wire begins to give, it stretches much more readily and it would be easy to overdo it. Furthermore, although you can’t unstretch it, there is a certain amount of ‘spring’ so when you release the tension the wire shortens slightly. I’m sure with more experience I would become familiar with all of these factors but on this design there is only a small amount of Lizardine so by the time I was becoming in tune with the wire, I had stretched the entire length!

Next, part of the stretched lizardine is wrapped around 3 strands of Soie de Paris. You don’t cut off a length of lizardine; you wrap the silk into one end of the wire. Again, this is easier said than done. I’m sure there a knack to this but I did not discover it. I tried holding the thread and twisting the wire; I think that this method would have worked well if I had three hands, one to hold the end of the wire and silk, one to hold the silk under tension and one to twist the wire. Mostly I held the end of the wire and silk in one hand and wound the silk into the gaps between the coils of the wire. It worked but it was slow and awkward.

The deepest shade of blue was used for the core on the central roundel and it is couched in place with a single strand of Soie de Paris. The couching stitches should lie over the silk core and allow the gold wire to show. Like the AGT on the Arabesques, I found the wire surprisingly stiff and at first found it difficult to form the oval outline. With a little trial and error, I developed a technique flexing the wire into a nice curve and couching it into place rather than trying to pull the wire into place with the couching stitches. The ends of the lizardine are not sunk but are trimmed so that they meet nicely at the start/finish of the oval. The silk core is sunk and secured on the back of the work.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

A line of Gilt Pearl Purl Super is stitched inside and outside of the line of lizardine. Pearl Purl is made from a domed wire formed into a tightly wound spring. This gives the wire a beaded appearance similar to a string of tiny gold pearls. Again it can be used as supplied but for this project it is stretched to 25-30% longer than its original length. The technique is exactly the same as for the lizardine. The Gilt Pearl Purl Super is couched with Tire silk which is fine enough to fit between the ‘beads’ and is barely visible. Although the GPPS is still a little stiff, I found it easier to flex this into shape with the lizardine already stitched in place.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The remaining roundels were completed in exactly the same way except that the deepest shade of red was used for the silk core instead of blue.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Arabesque

The blue petals and trefoils below each carnation and the rose are framed by an arabesque. A strand of AGT Old Gold Thread is couched along the line of the arabesque. I have no idea what AGT stands for (Antique Gold Thread, perhaps). The thread is new to me. It resembles lizardine that has been stretched and combined with a silk core (more about that later) except that it is heavier gauge than that. The silk core appears to be a full six strands of Soie de Paris and the gold that wraps around it is more elongated than a stretched lazardine. The picture below shows a single strand of Soie de Paris, a length of AGT Old GolD Thread, the inner core of the thread and the gold wire that is wrapped around the core.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

As with any thread of this weight, it is couched on the surface, in this case with a single strand of black Soie de Paris. The couching stitches should lay over the black areas of the AGT allowing the gold wrap to show.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I found the AGT surprisingly stiff (I should not have been surprised, Tricia does mention that in the notes) and a bit unwieldy. I found it a little difficult to bend it into the right shape but the couching stitches seem to be holding it in position.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I think this makes a nice accent below the flowers.

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Calyx

Before I could outline the carnations with Elizabethan Twist, I had a little work to do on the calyx. Well, I thought it was a little work but it turned out to be a whole lot of work. I had already satin stitched each calyx but this was just padding for the gold work.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Purl is a metallic thread that has been around for many centuries. It is a tightly coiled spring made from flattened wire. Traditionally it was available in natural metallic colours; gold, silver, copper ... Today it is available in a myriad of colours; the purl used on the calyxes of the carnations is olive coloured.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The purl comes in one continuous length that has to be cut into pieces. Each piece is then stitched into place as if it were a bead. The lengths of purl lie next to each other like satin stitches; they should be close enough to cover the back ground but not so close that they buckle.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Did I mention that Purl is a spring? It is springy, delicate and very easily damaged. When you try to measure a length for cutting, it springs around. When you try to cut a length, it springs around. When you try to pick a piece up on your needle, it springs around. And every slight slip handling it, cutting it, stitching it can damage it. This is slow, delicate and painstaking work.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

But very satisfying.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Putting on the Glitz

With all of silk embroidery complete I am able to move onto the gold work. I mentioned that one reason I wanted to do this course was to work on my long and short stitch but by far the biggest reason was the gold work.

Gold work is really appealing to me. I find the techniques fascinating, and am looking forward to learning some of them on this sampler, but it is the yummy materials that really attract me.

The first step of the gold work is to outline all the flowers and leaves with Elizabethan Twist. The 2-ply twisted gold thread is couched around the edge of the embroidery. I wound the twist onto a koma; I find it much easier to handle metallic threads this way.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

For the rose, every row of petals is outlined. As Rachel commented, the one point open space comes in very useful when positioning the Elizabethan Twist between the rows. Things got a bit messy with all of the tails on top but it is best to do all of the couching in one area before sinking them. The thread does catch on the loose ends but it would catch far more if they were on the back were you can’t see what is happening.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I am amazed how different this little flower looks just from outlining in gold.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Blue Petals and Leaves

The small blue petals were worked in long and short stitch. As with all the other flowers, these were first outlined with backstitch. The petals are quite tiny and there was only room for one row each of dark blue, pale blue and white and the stitches are tapered towards the points to avoid overcrowding.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

These were much simpler to stitch than the carnations!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The leaves are not outlined and are stitched in satin stitch. I have also satin stitched the calyx and the gold shapes at the bottom but this stitching serves as padding and will be covered by some of the gold work.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Rose

The rose on the centre tab has three rows of petals, each in a different colour. I first stitched all of the outlines in backstitch (except the circle in the very centre) in the appropriate colour. All of the petals are worked in satin stitch but the stitches taper towards the centre so that they do not become over crowded. The technique is very similar to filling each petal with a single row on long and short stitch.

I first worked the central petals in white ...

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

... then the middle row in pink ...

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

... and finally the outer row in red. I did not take a picture of the completed outer row but at a later date I decided that I did not like any of the stitching on the rose, ripped it all out (except the backstitched outline) and redid it. I much prefer my second attempt.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Floral Glove, Revisisted

I mentioned that Floral Glove went into hibernation not long after I had started it. There was a reason for that. The supplies for Floral Glove came in two separate parcels. The linen fabric, silk and gold threads and needles arrived first. The package containing all of the finishing materials arrived soon after I began stitching. Of course, I could not wait to open the package and look at everything. The finishing kit includes a dye cut cardboard glove. When I placed this over my fabric, I could see that I had a problem. The drawn outline on my fabric and the card cut out did not match and no matter how I adjusted it, there was no way that the embroidery was going to fit.

I emailed Tricia at Thistle Threads and after discussing options we agreed that Tricia would send a blank piece of linen and a copy of the original design which I would transfer onto the fabric myself. The replacement fabric and design were swiftly dispatched but I got caught up in the GMEX show, holidays, some beading, a couple of workshops, etc.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this course was to learn long and short stitch. I knew that I would be doing LSS at the next Phase of Japanese embroidery and I thought it would be a good spring board for that. As things turned out, I began Camellias before I returned to Floral Glove but when I became stuck on the random LSS, I decided to return to FG and practice alternating LSS some more.

After tracing the design and framing up I outlined the carnations in tiny back stitches. Rather than draw the little points on the flowers, I drew in the curved edge and marked the divisions for the points around the outline.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I’d worked a sample of alternating LSS on the edge of the linen to build up a little confidence but knew that stitching a virtual semi circle would be a completely different kettle of fish. On my sample I had used the linen threads to gauge the length of the stitches. I could not do that here, so I drew contour lines to serve as a guide. I’d also used the threads to judge the direction of the stitches and because I was working a small rectangle, it was easy to begin at one edge and work across. Here the stitches need to radiate around the circle. On Camellias I had draw directional lines to serve as a guide but in this case I found it easier to visualise a centre point and aim all of my stitches at that point. As I have been taught in Japanese embroidery, and everything else I have read suggests, I started from the centre and worked towards the right, then returned to the centre and worked towards the left.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Nagamijika-sashinui (alternating LSS) is not the same technique as thread painting. It is a stylized effect that is entirely in keeping with the Japanese penchant for stylized motifs and designs. I think that it is equally appropriate in this design where the motifs are more stylized than realistic. For the second row, I again worked from the centre towards each edge in turn. I brought the needle up roughly in the middle of each short stitch and stitched down into the fabric on my drawn guideline still aiming the stitches towards my imaginary centre point.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The stitches of the third row are stitched between those on the second row. Some of the stitches are shorter so that the centre does not get over crowded. I am quite pleased with the alignment of the stitches but I would have liked the bands of colour to have been the same width and for a bit more colour from one row to show through in the next but I’m not sure is that is possible with stitches that radiate as much as these.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

The second carnation was stitched in the same way, except that I came up in the fabric and stitched down into the thread to experiment with both ways. I found it more difficult to judge the position of the stitches this way and I think the stitching on this flower is worse than on the first one.

Having said that, I think the shape is really difficult and I am not totally dissatisfied with this attempt, it certainly does not look as bad with the naked eye and this macro shot suggests.

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Progress Report - June

I had twelve days off in May. Nine days were spent decorating (yes, still decorating and still not finished!). The other 3 days I spent with girl friends. A group of us went to Edinburgh to see an exhibition of Japanese embroidery. I have so much to blog about if only I can find the time!

Embroidery got no days this month. That’s not to say that I have not done any; I still try to do 15 minutes before I go to work each day. That has been patchy to say the least and I have not done any Japanese embroidery or Japanese bead embroidery at all!

I have made a little progress on the Floral Glove. It doesn’t look very different from the last report but I have done some work on it, honest!

© Thistle Threads/Carol-Anne Conway

I shall be glad when the decorating is finished; I am getting very grumpy about the lack of stitching time!

Happy Stitching