Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I'm still stitching!

I decided before I embarked on a big new project, I should do some actual crazy quilting to get back in the swing of things.  So I got a block put together for Chloe, my second granddaughter.  I made a block for Sophia, my first granddaughter, some years ago (it's the background on my blog) so I figured I better get with it and do one for Miss Chloe.  Her room is purple and pink so I went with that as a color scheme.  Unusual for a girl I know, but...  ;0)  Anyway, when I was sorting buttons while organizing my sewing room I discovered I have a HUGE amount of white buttons so I'm going to use quite a few on this piece.  It's coming along well and I'm quite pleased.

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I've been doing quite a bit of research on Medieval embroidery, textiles, images, themes and culture to prep for the Medieval CQ.  During my search I came upon a few blogs dealing with Medieval textile and embroidery, if you would like to take a peek.

http://bethsbluebellwood.blogspot.com/  She is doing an exhaustive examination of various embroidery stiches used during the medieval and later periods.

http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/  An embroidery, calligraphy and illumination blog.  She is especially interested in 16th and 17th century embroidery but the illumination comes from earlier periods.

http://gina-b.blogspot.com/  This is a silkwork and passementerie blog out of the UK.

http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/    A group blog about textiles and costumes of the late middle ages and early modern times.

http://baroqueembellishments.blogspot.com/  She is an embroiderer and pattern maker mostly interested in the Elizabethan and Renaissance eras. 

On a post in July on Baroque Embellishments Kimberly was all excited about discovering an online copy of a book, published in 1606, by ThomasTrevelyon (or Trevelian).It was pretty exciting to me, too!   It is on the Folger Shakespeare Library website and, beginning on page 7 (scroll down) there are quite a few pages of designs for blackwork embroidery.   A later edition (1616) is described  on Maggs Rare Books and contains a quite extensive history of Thomas and descriptions of his books.

It was in this book that I finally distilled the design I wanted on the focal piece.  On this design for a coif (cap) I found the perfect shape for the corners of the focal piece, with the added bonus that it incorporated a fleur-di-lis, an image I wanted to have on the final CQ banner.




I simplified the design for ease of transfer and then, primarily using the swirling vines from this image, I came up with this design for one quarter of the piece:


I traced the focal piece on to some graph paper and then transferred this design to all four corners of the outline on the graph paper.




It needed some adjusting but I played with it for awhile and this is where it stands now:



I like it!! 

5 comments:

sharonb said...

this is a great design - I can visualize the finished piece

Debra Dixon said...

You are putting in the planning now that will make this a really successful piece.

Rian said...

Great design--it will be terrific when you are done. Love the little pink 'n purple CQ, too!

Anonymous said...

How beautiful that is.

Betsy said...

exquisite. Your crazy block is fabulous! Makes me want to create another crazy quilt.