B For Bear

I stitched this in 2007 for the American Needlepoint Guild Charity Auction 2008. I don't like to hurry and it still had to go to the finishers to get made up into a 'something'. Since I didn't know how it would be finished - pillow, stand-up, applique, I decided to stitch only a few rows of background, but I included additional background thread in the package when returned it.

I don't know who the designer was, the only indication on the canvas were the letters AT. Whoever it was, thank you for the fun, I really enjoyed working this Bear. He was such a fine fellow I decided he needed a ribbon (which was well secured at the back so that it could not be pulled out) to match his Mouse friend's. 

The Bear took 38 hours to stich. I can't remember the size - it was a long time ago and I didn't make a note of that.

Dying Flames

I stitched this piece shortly after completing "Earth, Fire and Water". It was done specifically to enter the Handcrafts Competition at the Royal Highland Show in 2007. The class schedule, as I recall, was for "a piece of completed but unframed canvas work" on the theme of Fire .

The fan was based on the design I used in "Earth, Fire and Water", with the addition of the fan stick. I wanted a wide range of reds and purples to represent the darkness within a dying coal fire so I chose three Needle Necessities overdyes for the flames and a dark blue for the background of the fan. To make the fan stand out I stitched the background  with a lighter blue-grey overdye. The flames are worked in vertical straight stitches, staggered to reflect the flickering of flames. The background is bargello in three tiers, all worked in the same overdyed floss. I liked the colour changes and the way it pushed the fan forward.

Dying Flames was stitched on a blue 18 count canvas and measures 11.75" x 8.5". It took 113 hours to stitch.
And it took First Place, which was a pleasant surprise.

Allegro

This summer, as reported in my entry of 27th August, we attended the American Needlepoint Guild Seminar in Houston, Texas. One of the classes I attended while we were there was "Allegro". This was designed and taught by Debbie Rowley of DebBee's Designs.

I had various reasons for choosing this class. We met Debbie in Edinburgh in early 2019. We had an enjoyable lunch at the National Museum of Scotland and talked for ages about embroidery. After meeting her I thought it would be fun to go on one of her classes. When the class schedule appeared on the ANG website I liked the look of Allegro, I think it was the shapes and colours that attracted me. The piece uses a number of Jean Hilton stitches. I had never tried Hilton stitches, so that was a third good reason for selecting the class.

I finished Allegro this week. It measures 8" square on 18 count canvas and it took me 62 hours to stitch.

Did I enjoy the class?
Immensely. Debbie is a great teacher. I loved that she used videos to demonstrate the stitches, projecting them large on the screen, working them at an angle where her fingers never obscured the stitch she was demonstrating.

Did I like the Jean Hilton stitches?
I think I am going to have a love-hate relationship with them. I really like the way the curves are created by using quite long straight stitches, but I had major issues with counting and thread length. Once I had worked out that if you keep the shape in your mind the first stitch is the only one you need to count. After that the others follow it round in sequence and the Jessica Stitches become less terrifying.
I think my main difficulty was with the thread lengths. I tend to use the 'finger-tip to elbow' measure when preparing threads for stitching, Hilton stitches need longer lengths. I suffered from knots, fraying (mainly because I had to keep unpicking) and loops.

Did I enjoy stitching Allegro?
Yes and no. Overall, I loved it, but it was a struggle. I thought the 'Double Fab Doubled' in the centre was difficult until I started on the Parallelogram Jessica Stitches (the dark green ones). It's not that the method is any different from the smaller Jessica, but to do each one with a single thread requires a length of over 100 inches. I just couldn't handle that, but after numerous knots, curses and restarts I found the best way was to use half that length and do each one in two parts. It was still a very long thread compared to my usual, but definitely easier to control. (Though no doubt I looked silly with my arms stretched out to keep the thread taut and stop it knotting, twisting or unravelling.) The Parallelogram Jessicas alone took nearly 14 hours.

Will I use Hilton Stitches in my own designs?
You never know! I may have found them frustrating at times, but Debbie has made Hilton Stitches interesting and less daunting by creating and teaching this beautiful design.

Fire and Brimstone

"You've never made anything for your father," said Mother.
(Father is a retired Church of Scotland Minister and Military Chaplain. What do you make for an 'Auld Kirk Meeneester'?)
"What do you think he'd like?" I enquired.
"A cushion?" suggested Mama.
So I made him this cushion cover. It is 14" square and took me 36 hours.

It is based on a famous painting by Sir David Wilkie, sometimes labelled as John Knox preaching at Mary Queen of Scots, but actually he's preaching to The Lords of The Congregation. It shows him, as we say, "geeing it laldy". John Knox is an important figure in the history of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and had a reputation as a 'Fire and Brimstone' preacher.

I created the 'ground in one inch squares using English Piecing.
The purple represents the dark recesses of hell where, in his view, the unenlightened would be condemned for all eternity, the gold-yellow represents the enlightened, 'ie' those who agreed with Knox and would therefore be raised up to paradise on the last day of judgement. The diagonal band of red and yellow represents the Knoxian words of wisdom and the threat of damnation thundering from the pulpit and bringing enlightenment (or fear) to those who listen The colour scheme reflects the general trend of lighting in the Wilkie painting.
I then embroidered the outlines of some of the figures from the painting, starting with John Knox at the top right and representations of the congregation at the bottom left. The female figure in the purple area might be seen as a reference to Knox's "Monstrous Regimen of Women"

He loved it!
Mother loved it. "Typical minister", she commented, "Up in the pulpit six feet above contradiction."