Thread and Stitch Extravaganza!

[viennabelle]

On Thursday, I got a double set of goodies! The first was a order of new embroidery flosses I'd been waiting on for a while--the items were back-ordered, so I had to wait, wondering just whether the colors would work well together. I'm pleased to say, they do!

Here is a shot of the full range of thread I plan to use. In the top row, I have spangles, gold thread, rolls of Gild Sylke Twist and one roll of Soie Gobelins. On the bottom row, it's all Soie Perlee, which will be my primary silk for color work.  Needless to say, I need to get more gold thread (my recent effort making a priest's ordination stole pretty much sucked up two rolls of the stuff). By the way, I'm still working with color choices for the blues and lavenders--I am going to draw from the colors I have, but I'm not sure I'm going to use all of them.

The threads variously came from Hedgehog Handworks, Needle in a Haystack (who also supplied me with the linen) and Thistle Threads. These are all outstanding embroidery suppliers--I recommend them highly.

There's a thing about my choice of threads. For the colorwork, I'm using Au Ver a Soie's line "Soie Perlee." This is the thread used in the Plimoth Plantation Jacket Project  (i.e., my inspiration) --and it's got a super shiny luster--and is tightly spun, rather like a thin pearl cotton thread. However, it isn't the most commonly used product Au Ver a Soie sells--it's got a limited color range--and color cards are not available. Moreover, the local needlework stores (unfortunately, slaves to cross stitch and needle point customers) don't stock it. But--on the other hand, the silk thread lines available locally weren't filament silk (cheaper silk threads are made from chopped up fibers, which are far less shiny) and they also didn't have that nice tightly spun quality which makes detached stitches far easier.

So I took a shot in the barrel and ordered Soie Perlee. I think I'm a good gambler! The colors work together--and resemble the colors of the period.

My other goodie is Jane Zimmerman's "The Art of the Elizabethan Embroiderer!" A needlework friend recommended it to me--and while it took a while to receive it (Jane self publishes this)--it's fantastic! Jane has been fortunate to inspect several Elizabethan jackets and scrutinize their stitches. In this slim volume, she's documented a bunch of different variation filling stitches besides the standard detached buttonhole stitch. Squee! New stitches! I was so excited, I brought it to work Friday and read it over my lunch!

This weekend has not witnessed much stitching. I am expecting the onslaught of a month of houseguests, starting with my friend Joanna, who returns on Monday to DC to do initial research for her dissertation. Tomorrow is graduation day for several in my EFM group. So, my focus has been cleaning. However,  I am finding it rather tough to avoid spending a little time stitching....I've got a new lamp on the project and it's working much better, though the new stitches are challenging my innate lack of direction!