Elsa Williams #00078 Woodland Animals Crewel Kit finished

 Feeling happy to have finished the Elsa Williams Woodland Animals Crewel kit #00078  , which is a beautiful sampler of different basic embroidery stitches .

  Heritage Embroidery by Elsa Williams Published - Van Nostrand Rienhold Company in 1967 .

 I dipped into this vintage embroidery book , every now and again to take a clearer look at the stitch instructions .
 I would say that on the whole most of these basic stitches , could be learnt from the book, if you were a complete beginner .... with the exception maybe of the the French knot and the Tufted stitch , which would be better if someone could sit beside you and show you . There are plenty of youtubes and tutorials on line , but there's nothing like having someone actually demonstrate it to you .

                   So ,   " Dear Elsa Williams , what do you think of my French Knots ? "

 The Tufted Stitch  , was the most frightening stitch for me , but I think I have grasped it now .

 I finally chose this shade of green for the centre of the main large sunflower , this was not clear at all on the instructions .

                That tiny little pink flower , each petal all different shades of rose-pink  !

                                         Then to proudly stitch my name on .

                      The reverse ...for those who strangely always insist on seeing it  .
I always begin and end on the front and use every little scrap of thread. I never throw any of the cut off ends of threads away . I am very miserly with my crewel wool !
  I have plenty of bundles thread left over..except for the palest  yellow /gold . I used up all but about one inch of it and used that last bit to stitch the daisy in my name . Very strange how they  didn't put so much of the yellow into the kit ....anyone else with less stitching experience might have run out of this pale yellow wool and been stuck .
 I'll have to have a think about what I can do with this left over crewel wool .

             So now I,ve finished it and am thinking about having it framed .
I have another project, a medieval picture to finish , one I,ve designed myself  and have been slowly working on over the last year .
    So maybe I,ll show you some of this next time  . Happy stitching .

Vintage Oast Houses Embroidery Transfer

 I found this old embroidery transfer of the Oast houses in Kent and it tugged at my Kentish heart strings and I just had to buy it ...but sadly when I came to iron it on to my linen , it didn't work ! It seems that it had been used too many times and the ink was used up .

So I sat for about two hours going over all the lines with the horrible pink transfer pencil .

                                                  ...and then ironed it on ......

Its not brilliant , and the next problem is that it didn't come with any instruction leaflet  either ...grrrr . I managed to find a picture of it on the internet and decided to match the colours up as best that I can . I,m not even sure if this is meant to be stitched with wool or cotton threads .  Anyway  , I,ve decided to stitch it with the lovely mellow colours , of the vintage  Penelope crewel wool , that I used on the "Down a Country Lane " embroidery earlier in the year .
 Cant wait to get started now .  Here we go stitching into Autumn  . I love Autumn  !

Shorleyker Moth

                                   A little Sunday embroidery....I find so relaxing.
 I ,m stitching another moth from " A Schole-house for the Needle " published in 1624 by Richard Shorleyker .

                 I,m using buttonhole stitch around the edge of the moth's wings .

I just did  backstiches for the moth's body , I ,m going to whip those green back stitches over and over for a nicer and ever so slightly raised finish .

The sun came out and I took my needlework out into the garden . I have been delighted by the appearance of some wild strawberries , I suppose a bird must have brought in .
I thought I would put these photos on here, useful I thought , to use in another Elizabethan embroidery ..sometimes I think that the patterns in modern embroidery books have become too stylised . I want my strawberries to be more botanically correct  .
 I put them on here that you too can look closer !
  Strawberries were a much loved subject of embroidery all through the medieval  times , especially loved by the Elizabethans  as a symbol of love and righteousness , the three leaves , symbolising the Holy Trinity .

                        ...and the tiny fruits much loved by the Cornish Piskies  !

       I stitched the tiny whipping stitches , over and over , around his green body  .

  Then begin the wings by putting in some directional guide line stitches , which will be worked in to my long and short shading , from the outside edge to the centre .
 This is not a tutorial ...you do not have to do your butterfly wings like this...you can stitch them..upwards , downwards , in french knots , however makes you smile ..for that is the most important thing and also not worry about the mess on the back if you are a beginner.......just relax and enjoy being creative .