I’ve started the sampler:
It’s gonna take a while.
As for my growing list of the WIPs, I’ve made progress on most of them. The Hunky Hank Blanket might turn into a jacket. I’ve been playing with arranging squares on my dress model and have come up with a few designs I like the look of. I’m two squares short of the number I need for the design I prefer, but I figure I can do them with a different black yarn and put them under the arms, where they won’t be seen much.
Tomorrow I’m off to a Craft Day with a small bunch of friends. I’m taking some clothing to alter and some refashioning projects. Hopefully I’ll have some finished pieces to post in a few days.
I used to do lots of Blackwork, I loved it. One day I will pick it up again. I taught it to myself when I was about 12 and obsessed with Tudor history and novels – nerdy or what?!
Nah, only mildly nerdy!
Blackwork is great! i did a heap of free form blackwork after i did the counted stuff. I got to hold the Jane bostock sampler in the vic and albert museum in London (it was in glass) – i actually cried with delight!
I just googled pics of the sampler. Photos don’t give a sense of size/scale, but it sure looks intricate.
Any good book on blackwork or embroidery that covers elizabethan history tends to have good pictures of it.
Most of my blackwork ended up being freeform too, you can do freeform and fill in the bits and bobs with counted patterns. that’s fun. 🙂
My embroidery is on this post. so much fun to do. http://www.avrilejean.net/2013/01/30/tudors/
Wow, that jacket is amazing! I’m toying with the idea of doing tambour embroidery in white on a muslin overskirt for a Regency dress. But I figured I should do some small projects first, before I launch into something so big.
I also like the idea of doing something unexpected – like metallic yarn on black cloth, or giant blackwork on a leather or woven straw bag.
That jacket took YEARS but was worth it.
One of the great things about when I was in the SCA was I could wear all that stuff and just go nuts on more every time.
Giant blackwork on a bag could work really well, actually. 🙂