Visiting Oxford

I was asked via a comment, what I recommend to do in Oxford and I was a little embarrassed at the realisation that I have seen very little of all that Oxford has to offer. When I have the opportunity of a day out, I usually go further a field yet there is so much history right here on my doorstep. While I was a school, I visited various museums and a couple of colleges, but I have only visited one museum in recent years.

To see Oxford, there is an Open Top Bus Tour and there are many Walking Tours, you can find more information about these here.

Two museums I highly recommend are the Ashmolean – Museum of Art and Archaeology and The Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology. (I remember the fascination of seeing shrunken heads, medieval instruments and totem poles when I was child.)

There are far too many colleges to name. During term time their doors are closed to the public but during the summer many are open to visitors. Top of my list to visit would be Christ Church, not least because of the Cathedral

If you are near Carfax Tower linger a while to watch the quarterboys hammer out the quarter hour and (if you are feeling fit) climb the tower for spectacular views over the City.

There are so many places to eat around the City. Many of the museums have cafes; Gloucester Green and the recently redeveloped Castle Complex both have a variety of restaurants. Within the remains of the Castle itself a new exhibition, Oxford Castle Unlocked, has recently opened.

People from all over the world make special trips to see the City I live so close to. Perhaps next time I go out for the day, I should be a tourist in Oxford.

Silver Couching

Only fine metallic threads can be stitched with; #3 and above are couched in place. Silver is usually couched with white or pale grey. Occasionally, couching threads of a different colour are used to alter the appearance of the silver. I have couched a broad line of silver - 3 pairs of #4 - with the pale blue silk to carry the blue throughout the design.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Hind Wing Outline

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

The outer edge of the hind wing is outlined with a pair of #4 silver couched with a 1-2 twist of white silk.

To give definition to the shape, and to integrate the body and wings, I outlined the large spots with the pale blue/silver katayori that I originally intended to use on the Blue Eyed Boy. It was too bulky to use with the flat silk foundations there but is perfectly balanced with the twisted silk foundation on the fore wings and couched metallic threads on the hind wing of this butterfly.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

I have taken a photograph from a different perspective to try to demonstrate how the appearance of the metallic threads and silks alters when viewed from a different angle.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

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Body Padding

Japanese Embroidery has a number of 'rules' developed and refined over more than a thousand years. They are there for good reasons and if you forget or choose to ignore these rules, it usually becomes apparent why the rule was established.

One such rule is to stitch the foreground elements before stitching elements that lie behind them. On this butterfly, the hind wing is in front of the fore wing and should have been stitched first. The body is attached to the wings rather than in front of them, but I think this should have been stitched before any part of the wings. Because the yellow and blue twist was the only element that I had totally committed to, I stitched that first. When I came to stitch the body, it was difficult get the shape right.

I padded the head and body with 4 strands of padding cotton to give a nice plumpness and used the pale blue/silver twist to stitch it.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

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Fuzzy Effect

All along I had planned to use gold on this butterfly, but when I got out the metallic gold thread it looked totally wrong with the yellow and blue stitching that I have already done. It is a red gold and was not right with the blue tone. I tried the silver and liked that much better. This will mean a rethink of some of the other elements and I will have to decide how to incorporate one of the colours from 'Dad'.

I've used another new technique on the hind wing. The technique, called 'fuzzy effect' is used on my Phase III piece, but I have not stitched it yet. The method is to couch threads into alternate valleys in the fabric. This fabric does not have very pronounced valleys but I was able to follow the lines between the welt thread fairly easily. I love couching so it was inevitable that I would enjoy this, however, I did find it rather demanding. The couching stitches come out and go back into the same valley line and are arranged in a brick pattern. Once the pattern is established, things went a little quicker, but the first few rows were really slow as I measured the position for each stitch; I do not have a very good eye for distance or length.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway

I am very pleased with this, it looks exactly how I imagined it would.

Phase VIII of the Japanese Embroidery course is stitched entirely in fuzzy effect - a couching freak's dream! This version, stitched by Jennifer Orchard, uses a different colour scheme and is absolutely stunning.

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TAST French Knots

Ok, so I have only been working on this in my 'spare' time, but it has taken me four weeks to complete this TAST! I think this is something of a break through for me. Gone are the neat lines of carefully planned stitches. Although I had a vague idea of how I wanted this to look, I have really felt my way and let the needle guide me and I feel somewhat liberated by it.


I began with a piece of muslin and made running stitches across it lengthwise with DMC Perle cotton. I then gathered the muslin to fit a pre-marked area on felt. Using the 'tails' from the gathering threads, I attached the muslin to the felt using French Knots. I then spread or bunched the gathers in a random manner and began filling the flat areas with French Knots.

I kept selecting threads and adding knots where it felt right and kept going until it felt finished.

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Worth the Effort

It has taken me six hours to remove my first attempt, twist new threads and restitch the two fore wings, but I think it was worth it. I am much happier with them now.


I have learnt that diagonal holding stitch does exactly what it was intended to do and is not easy to unpick; not to crowd the stitches but rather give each one some breathing space; that tiny couching stitches are not always the best, for this technique longer ones sink into the foundation stitches where short ones sit fairly obviously on the surface.

For once I have been able to spend an entire day stitching, so it is a little disappointing to only have the same amount completed as I had at the start of the day. I am almost entirely consoled by knowing that this is far better than it was this morning. Had I left it, I think I would have always been dissatisfied with it.

Happy Stitching