New Witney Antiques Exhibit of 17th & 18th c Needleworks

 Choice & Precious Work

If you are in England ZOOM to Witney Antiques and check out their current exhibit, Choice & Precious Work. Firstly, it is amazingly FREE, and secondly, it is the first of two exhibits that will be showcasing the Elizabeth Hall suite of 17th c needlework & embroidery. Later pieces from the 18th c have been added to  her collection by her descendants. I cannot stress to my Dear readers enough how very rare these pieces are, and that they have been so well taken care of and passed down through the family together. This is a once in a lifetime change to view such a collection~ if you cant get there, then order the catalogue! It can be had directly from Witney Antiques, or if you are in the US the Attic Needleworks will be carrying it here shortly, so give them a ring and reserve yourself a copy!

Taking a Gap Year?

  Did you Miss a Year?

I am very disappointed to announce that I will not be offering a new heirloom ornament kit this year. There are several reasons, none of which matter to get into because it will not change the outcome! I have had a really glorious kit planned for this year, so will be pushing it forward to 2024, and hopefully I will be able to get it out earlier than later. In the meantime, I guess this means Im taking a gap year~ so if there are any of the kits of previous years you haven't got yet, here is your chance!  

My kits from 2016 to 2020 are limited edition kits. Meaning, that once my kitted quantity iss sold, they will not be sold again. 

Kits from 2021 on are still somewhat limited editions, meaning that they will be sold for as long as I am able to source the materials for them.  2021's Flemish Coffer is a good example~ I am currently awaiting materials to come in for that one before I can restock it, so it is currently unavailable.

If you are interested in purchasing a kit, just drop me an email at rlkinnison@yahoo.com and I can send a Paypal invoice. 

2016 Flemish Fantasy~ SOLD OUT

2017 Winter Queen: 9 available ~340.00 USD + shipping

2018 Peaceful Kingdom~ SOLD OUT

2019 Ort King: 2 available ~ 250.00 USD + shipping

2020 Fanciful Story~ SOLD OUT

2021 Flemish Coffer~ Out of Stock

2022 Skarlet Ladye: 19 available~ 315.00 USD+shipping

What Are YOU Waiting For?

 Time Waits for NO ONE

I finished the front frieze and front panel for my Scenes of Country Life, or Rural Pursuits casket this morning. SUPER chuffed!

I try and post something every day on Instagram...however much or little stitching I get done~ I think there is a link in the sidebar to it. I always get the same messages though....

'Oh, I love your embroidery I need to work on my casket, as soon as I get XXXXXXX finished and some little smalls done'

Is that YOU? Do you keep putting your casket on the back burner until you Retire...or until you finish a sea of endless tiny projects?

Well...let me tell you dearest readers....if you really want to stitch a casket...ya'll got to get on it! 

TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN...OR WOMAN

I will be turning 52 here in a couple of weeks. I used to be fit as a fiddle! No worries...hardly ever sick. Things change. We do not get better with age. PERIOD. Last year could have been my last. year. I am now deaf in one ear. Its hard for me to get up and walk around...I now have macular degeneration making it severely hard for me to see. I see shit that's not even there...and cant see what is. 

I have chosen to prioritize stitching my caskets because they are important to me. You may be one of those folks who love to dream about things and pet their threads and that is enough~ and it is enough if that is your want~ there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you really DO want to stitch a casket....

GET OFF YOUR TUCCAS AND DO IT!

All those tiny little projects you did these past couple of years, could have been tiny bits of your casket. Heck all a casket IS...is a smathering of tiny little projects. Break that sucker down into its components, and just do it! BABY STEPS. Before you know it, your casket will be finished!

I will be starting the final panel of my casket~ the top, here shortly~ hope you stop on by my Instagram to check it out and let me know what you're working on!

HAPPY STITCHING!!!

Plaid Plaid Plaid

Late 1830s Boy's Fall Front 2pc. Suit

Say hello to our new little friend. I apologize that I did not catch his name, as he does not speak...but he is in there to be sure.  This is a fabulous example of boy's wear of the 1830s for several reasons. It fits into so many different categories, yet, it does not. Boys clothing is always super rare...young man's clothing moreso. Is this toddler-size? No. Is it young man size? No. I'd say grade school, between being breached and yet before 'adult' style of clothing was worn. Is this a skeleton suit? Well...not exactly. Is it a relative? definitely. Boys at this time would have worn a straw hat to keep the sun off and their heads covered...not this beaver type I have on him. But since I don't have an early boy's straw hat in the collection, and I do have a beaver...he chose to wear the beaver. Would he have worn shoes??? Maybe not. 

The suit is made from a lightweight cotton or linen blend plaid, very summer weight. I love early group images as they provide evidence of how current fashions were worn. There are always some who were more fashionable and some who were less...sometimes some eccentric folks, all together in the same picture. The above set of boys are from the late 1850s, not one is wearing shoes.

Here is a nice 1850s school group of girls and boys, with their teachers....if you click and zoom in, some of these boys aren't wearing shoes either...

I digress...why am I talking about the habit of not wearing shoes instead of this suit? It is hard to not sit and daydream about what little chap would have worn it, where did he live? Did he live long? Have a happy life? Grow up to have his own little boy? Sadly, the odds are not in his favour. Clothing such as this usually only survived because it was the little guy's last set of clothes before he passed away, for whatever reason. Otherwise, they were worn until they were worn out, handed down, etc etc. 

Here is a back view, an arm has slipped out of the pocket now.  This is a two-piece suit consisting of a one-piece skeleton and an outer jacket. I date it firmly to the late 1830s from the fall front, a staple on grown men's pants at the time period, the banded-down sleeves, and the ruffle around the hem of the jacket. Younger boys at this point in time would have worn fuller skirts on their jackets, reaching down to the knees. Our lad here is older, he's grown up enough to just have a little hint of the skirts left at the hem of his jacket, in the form of a ruffle. 

This back view shows the jacket removed. You can see the fullness in the booty area to allow him to comfortably bend over and not get, ahem... a 19th c wedgie. There are three buttons that close the back upper. The bottommost button also buttons onto the waistline of the pants, along with 4 additional buttons, two on each side.  They are not visible in this photo, but there are yet more buttons down the sides to allow the back flap to be undone for him to go to the outhouse and not have to take his entire ensemble off, as seen below.

Enjoy this pic~ take a few moments to soak it all in. A fall front flap on such a small child's garment. ::::sigh:::::

Two buttons attach it at the waistline, and there is also a  large side opening pocket to each side of it~ cause hello, boys need space to put things!

The only lining in the entire garment is the linen lining to the body of the jacket as seen above, it does NOT extend into the sleeves.

With the jacket on, the front flap reaches just up under the jacket's waistband.

This is a view of the inside of the front of the suit~ the plaid material extends into the front flap area fully~ so that when the flap is down, he is still covered somewhat. The two ample pockets can be seen....no doubt they once held marbles and all sorts of fun stuff!

Scenes of Country LIfe Casket Progress...And

 Some Notes on the Importance of Stitch Direction

 The time is flying by~ I spent most of July in Washington State visiting my family there, so not much time for stitching. I am back at it now, working the front frieze, as seen at the bottom of my frame above. Because of the number of panels I have drawn on this piece of silk, the size is too large to comfortably reach the top of the frame, so I have to stitch it upside down...I don't recommend it. Shadows change, and stitching that looks one way upside down, may not look the same right side up, so if you are in the same situation, be sure to check your progress right side up frequently!

 As always, I work all the flat silk stitching first, then will go back and add gimps, then other things like silk-wrapped purls, etc. If I have silk-wrapped purls on a piece, those always get put on last as they are terrific thread snaggers. Especially when using flat filament silk that is so beautifully shiny, thread direction can have a huge impact on the look of the finished piece. Most 17th c satin stitch elements were stitched with the stitches running vertically. Colour choices and shading would add the details.

 If one looks at the finer long & short stitch pieces, you will find the stitch direction flows with the elements themselves~ for example, hair. An entire head of hair can be stitched with just one colour of thread, but by changing the stitch direction within curls etc, the stitches themselves create shadows and movement.  Look closely at the stitch direction of my birds here. Stitches that echo the curving design lines will help to portray a rounder more dimensional object. See how flat and boring looking the cherries are next to the songbird? I have chosen to work the flowers on the frieze in straight satin stitch while using long & short stitch on the creatures for more details and contrast.

 Don't be afraid to mix stitches within an element. I have used both satin and long & short stitches on the turkey

Rarely are 17th c pieces ever just one type of stitch~ whether it be a single panel, or an entire mirror or casket. I like to think of them as samplers of all different kinds of stitches and techniques~ so if you want to use a pile of different techniques, GO FOR IT! It will look amazing!!

Happy Stitching!!

Scenes of Country Life Casket

 Progress

It's been a while since I posted about my casket progress...or lack thereof is probably more accurate. I don't know what I do all day long, but whatever it is, it sure goes by quick cause every time I turn around, it's time to go to bed again. 

Whatever happened to the days dragging on like they did when we were little? I might be able to actually accomplish something if I had that kind of time on my hands...

There are two scenes on the front panel~ one of me fishing, and the other milking a cow. Because I have them framed up with the top panel on the same slate frame, the only way I can reach them to stitch is with them upside down...which in itself presents some challenges. One of the best qualities or reasons for stitching with flat filament silk is the effects that the light has on it. A person can stitch with a single colour, and just the position of the stitches and how the light bounces off them creates shadows and illusions of there being different shades of colours there, when in fact it's all the same colour. 

So shadows play an important part in stitching with filament silk...insert stitching tip here...very important.....

Your stitching can look one way upside down, and drastically different once turned right side up! So check it often if you find yourself in my same situation...

I started with the ground as usual, and decided I wanted to work a basketweave pattern for one of the fields, as seen above.

I have to continually remind myself that this is a FLAT work casket that is supposed to be mainly satin stitch. It is very hard. I actually worked the entire forefield and then decided I didn't like it...didn't like the colours, and most importantly, ever so slight as it was, the field stood too proud from the surface. The milk jugs were going to be long and short stitch, so very flat, and hello, you can't have milk jugs in the foreground that sit behind the field that is supposed to be behind them.

So the field got ripped out el mui pronto, which actually made me quite happy as the colours I had chosen for the field were giving me flashbacks to our 1970s kitchen with orange, brown, and green mushroom wallpaper...

I kept the diagonal direction and worked stripes in satin stitch~ love it! It set the field off dramatically from the one in the background without it being too obnoxious.

Once the field was finished I built the fence and planted some long leg french knot trees. Worked the milk jugs next and REALLY HATED them. I mean, seriously close to ripping them out. As I am typing this you can see EXACTLY what I'm talking about with the difference of how something looks upside down....the jugs above are the same ones as shown in the picture below~ I think the ones below that are upside down are much nicer than the ones above....anyways, I decided to leave them and see how they looked after the cow was finished.

Everything is so tiny on this piece, as I was stitching Cow, I had to stitch the milkmaid's head and hat. They are seriously small and the lines were seriously hard for me to see. Am I overusing the word seriously? This should give you an idea of how stressful this panel was for me~ it wasn't much fun. The girl's face is literally half the size of the fishing panel's face, I think 4 mm from top to bottom, and not even that wide. R*E*D*I*C*U*L*O*U*S*L*Y* small. 

Enter stitching tip here: Don't draw things so small you can't stitch them with modern materials available today.

Cow complete, it's on to the costume. 

I wanted to make the costume bright so the girl would stand out against the fields...but not so bright she looked stupid...A farm girl does not dress in her best dress to go out and milk a cow! The addition of an apron and headscarf helped to keep her simple.

Rows of French knots for the foreground in blue-greens set them apart from all the greens in the background. A few strategically placed tiny silk gimps finished off the scene.

 I am actually really pleased with this panel which is odd because I think out of all of them thus far, this one had the most things I was not happy with in it. I ripped a LOT out, but I also left a lot in. One thing is so true with 17th c stitching it can be very easy to become hyper-focused on a single aspect of it~ be it a stitch or a colour etc....but there's so much going on, that once everything is in place, all the glaring things just kind of blend and disappear. 

Sometimes they add just the amount of quirkiness that is needed to make it perfectly 17th c

Whatever your stitching, I hope it brings you joy

New Beadwork Class Open for Enrollment!

 Fruit of Thy Hands

I am super excited to announce my new 17th c beadwork class at Diamond K Folk Art Online Academy is now open for enrollment. I am so far behind from being sick last year, I am trying to catch up & sincerely apologize to all of my students patiently waiting for the classes I was working on to be ready.   

I designed this project class to teach the basic detached techniques used in making beaded baskets like mine shown above. What is learned in class can be applied to any and all the flowers and fruits and acorns etc I made for my basket!

If you are not familiar with 17th c beaded baskets, I can refer you to read an earlier post on them here. There is a link to the basket above at the Met~ note the wonderful beaded oranges and lemons in the border surround. I will teach you how to make them in this class~ though you will make strawberries, the technique is the same for all fruits/ nuts etc. 

Class starts on 1 July, and the kits will ship mid-June. If you would like to learn more about it or enroll,  you can do so here, or click the Diamond K Folk Art Online Academy PAGE TAB under the header at the top of the page to see the current classes offered.