Whitework Finished

Went to Durham for the 2 week intensive session in July and started by mounting my Whitework ready for Tracy to post down to the RSN for assessment.  Here it is:

Unfortunately, when you choose to include the hemming part of the brief in the design, you don't use a mounting technique which stretches the fabric.

Finished!  Well nearly.  Just need to do the hemmed border and mount on card with a blue fabric background.  I'll be doing this in Durham next week with Tracy.  Then it is off to the RSN for assessment.

Advanced Whitework

I decided to start my Whitework again, as I wasn't happy with what I had done so far. So that is what I did when I went back to Tracy in Durham in November and January. The design above is what I chose to do. So this will be in pulled thread work and then I have to do a border and corners showing drawn thread work.

I did most of the work at home, but when I went back to Durham for my two week intensive session I started on the drawn thread work. This is the piece before adding the drawn thread work.

And after three of the drawn thread borders were completed:

Closeups of the borders:

 

Closeup of one of the corners.

I have three more corners to do and I am re-doing one of the borders as I'm not entirely happy with it. I then have to hem the edges and mount it!

Teddy Finished

After a long break due to health issues, I finally finished Teddy. This image was before I mounted him, so the puckers are no longer there. I went back to Tracy in Durham last November and mounted Teddy, and off he went to the RSN for assessment.

At the end of my first week with Tracy in Durham, the Lace Maker is now finished and ready to mount ready for assessment. We will start mounting on Tuesday and I will finish in the evenings.

Tracy started me off again on Teddy on Friday, so I can work on him over the weekend.

Also hoping to get started on Whitework next week, so I will have two projects to finish before next summer!

Nearly there! Just need to soften the shading on her face. It is a bit too sharp. Then I 'm adding some embellishments to reflect those in the painting. Tracy will help me next week, when I'm in Durham for my 2 week intensive.

So the plan is to finish The Lacemaker, mount it and submit for assessment, re-establish contact with Teddy, my silk-shading project, so that I can finish him over the next year, and start a whitework project. Gosh, what a plan!

Nearly there!  Just need to add 'slanted blanket stitch' to the bottom edge and tidy up the right hand edge.

Ready for "fine tuning" when I go up to Tracy in Durham for this year's intensive.

Now for the cap.

Well, after 18 difficult and not very nice months, I feel ready to return to my Blackwork and the RSN Diploma. I still have quite a bit to do, but I'm feeling confident that I will finish in time for my trip to Durham in the summer and another 'intensive' session!

I need to sort the shading on her chin, which isn't quite right.

The cap will have some blackwork patterns, so I need to practice how to achieve it.

All is positive at the moment.

Day 7 & last day for Teddy in class

Well, this is as far as I got! I need to buy some fine Piper's silk for his tufty fur. I think I know how to continue.  We'll see.  Watch this space!

Day 6

2nd ear done.  Not so much unpicking today

Day 5 and After the weekend

Unpicked most of what I had stitched over the weekend.  Just couldn't get the direction of Teddy's fur right.  No Day 4 as I had to go south!  I think they may look like ears now!  Definitely not a two week project no matter how intensive.

Day 3

I need to a bit more blending on Teddy's ear and I worked on his mane today.  I took this photo when I got back to the cottage, decided it wasn't right and un-picked a lot of it!

Day 2

Fluorescent lights are affecting the colours!  Images were the right way up when I downloaded them from my phone. Apparently there's a bug in Blogger!

Day 1

End of Day 1 ready to start the silk shading.
All framed up and 'stab stitched'.

Fabric is silk dupion, but the colour hasn't come out too good - probably due to the fluorescent lights, but it's a nice blue.

Rotated the image when I 'resized' it but it's reverted back!  Need to find out how to correct it.

RSN Advanced Silk Shading

 This is Teddy.  He is one of the Donkey Sanctuary's rescues.  He is blind.  I have 'adopted him', ie I am donating some money for his upkeep.  I used to have donkeys, so I'm very fond of them and want to try and help the sanctuary where I can.  So I've decided that my Advanced Silk Shading project will be Teddy.  If i'm pleased with the result then I shall photograph the embroidery and organise postcards/notelets for the Sanctuary to sell and raise much needed money.

The Lacemaker

Well it's the Durham time of the year!  I didn't manage to complete my blackwork piece over the winter - too many other projects plus work of course!  I probably won't get much more done now before I'm in Durham at the beginning of June.  My plan is to seek Tracy's opinion and advice, spend one day on The Lacemaker and finish at home.  This year I will start my advanced silk shading.

Royal School of Needlework - Diploma in Hand Embroidery

Summer Intensive 2013 I have started on the first module in the diploma course.  I have chosen to begin with blackwork.  My subject is the blackwork coif and head of the young girl in the painting "The Lacemaker" by Caspar Netscher.

 On a sample piece of 32 count linen I stitched a background of lines to represent a twill linen of the cap.  Then traced the image onto tissue paper, tacked it onto the sample and stitched running stitches around the shape.



More samples of patterns.  All traced from original pieces

I looked at the shapes on the cap and then studied as many historical pieces as I could to try to determine what the shapes were.  This is my interpretation, which I aim to reproduce on my embroidery.

DAY 6

Slow progress on her face, but looked at how to 'break out' the pattern for minimal shading.  Also started to discuss with Tracy how to approach the cap.

DAY 5

Couldn't quite get the shading right on her neck, so there were a few unpickings today, plus some help from Tracy!

MONDAY

Doesn't look like much progress but I worked all day!  I must be very slow.

 SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Didn't quite finish shading her dress before bedtime! Stitch is 'waffle stitch'.  Darkest is done in coton a broder and blending to 2 strands of stranded cotton

Starting to lighten the background now.

Need to work on the edges at some point.

Close up of 'waffle stitch.

DAY 4

Not a lot of progress today.  Couldn't get the hang of the shading on her neck so had to unpick!

DAY 3

More of the long & short zig zag stitch for the background.  The gaps are where I am going to put thinner thread for the shading.

Pattern under the chin is a diamond and is achieved with a 45 /3& 50/3 Mulberry silk. The diamond is filled with a cross.  The pattern & the thick thread create the dark effect.  The slightly lighter area under the chin will be done by not putting a complete cross.

 DAY 2 - STARTING THE BACKGROUND

Spent some time practising some samples and then started the background with a zig zag type pattern.

           DAY 1 -  SETTING UP

This means preparing the fabric & frame and tracing the basic outline onto tissue. The tracing is then basted to the fabric to hold it in place. The tracing is then stitched with running stitches, larger on the top than the bottom, so that when the tissue is removed we can still see the outline - I hope!!