In April I attended the Embroiderers' weekend in Folkestone.
These pictures show the work that I did. The first picture on the left shows the beginnings of a piece of needle lace, using pea stitch. This is worked separately and attached later.
The second picture shows the piece of needle lace completed. It is to be the seed head of the Erynguim.
The third photo shows the needle lace attached and the embroidery starting around it. We used double back stitch for the shadow work and raised fishbone and closed fly stitch for the bracts. There is a lot more work to be done .....
This is my report of the weekend.......
On 5th April 2013 my husband drove me to the Clifton Hotel Folkestone, in a blizzard. It was just raining when we arrived and we quickly found my room on the 3rd floor. The hotel is like a maze and my husband got lost on the way down the stairs to leave the hotel and had to come back up and use the lift! The Clifton is situated on the Leas and it was wonderful to walk along looking down at the sea, getting fresh air when the eyes and back no longer worked well enough to stitch and to bend over a frame. The work room was pleasant to work in and had a view of the garden.
There were two courses on offer for the weekend and I had chosen Jenny Adin-Christie, who was teaching a slant on Crewel Work.
Before the weekend Jenny had sent a letter that sketched out the sort of stitching we would be working and some ideas on what to take. She brought along project packs for us to chose a design to stitch, or we could use all our own threads or buy a project pack and add our own threads beads sequins etc. I decided on a project pack, so I only had to take a basic stitching kit and a light and frame.
The projects were Honesty and the one I chose, Eryngium. The project pack was beautifully designed, in it's own hand made material bag with a photo of the design on the front. It contained everything I would possibly want to complete the piece, even down to a very cute needle book complete with 10 needles and pins, all carefully labelled. In the pack there was a very comprehensive and beautifully drawn book of instructions, including detailed descriptions of the stitches we were to use and the design to trace onto the silk organza.
There were plenty of lamps, frames and different pieces of equipment that Jenny had brought with her for us to borrow. She was very generous with her supplies and her time.
It all looked terribly complicated but with Jenny's patient help, most of the projects were near to completion by the end of the weekend with one finished! I learned a lot from Jenny, she is unstinting in imparting her considerable knowledge of the use of the needle and her lesson on needle direction, will change the look of my stitching for ever. She has given me a insight to stitches that was missing.
The whole weekend was a whirl of stitching and Jenny was with us all the way, right through until nearly bedtime.
I think, all in all, she is the best tutor I have ever had.Jenny Adin-Christie
