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30 years ago we were living in Harrogate. We had deep snow and I had walked into the town centre for something and noticed that there was a show at the Exhibition Centre called NeedleCrafts. Well! I couldn't pass that by, now could I? It turned out to be a trade exhibition, but because of the snow there were few customers and everyone was standing around twiddling their thumbs, so they let me in, wellies and all!

I saw a stand for the Danish Handcraft Guild and they had these two pieces on display. I fell instantly in love, but each kit was over £30. I had small children, and there was no way that I could afford such a luxury. So I went home sadly, and just remembered them(and dropped hints fruitlessly at Christmas and birthdays for years!). Just as a comparison I bought the materials for two bargello cushion fronts in Appleton wools for £12 at about that time.

When ebay came along I had searches running for years before I found the kits, and bought them, but haven't had time to do them since then.





(the stripes are scanning errors)

Now, as you can see they are dull brown (two similar shades) on a dull brown natural linen, which costs a fortune, but that's not a reason to have it hanging on my wall for the rest of my life! They are worked in cross stitch and backstitch.

So, in my stash is some antique white linen which is much prettier, and I was thinking dark and mid gold for the angelica. Maybe with some gold blending filament just for the outer edges of the piece to give a slight halo effect. And perhaps green for the teasel, with maybe silver blending filament for the flowers at the top, or maybe not, I'd have to give that a try.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Lovely designs and I love your ideas for both of them. That's the beauty of stitching, making it to what you want!!!

Ah, this is the set of projects you mentioned in your intro post! I'm so sorry, for some reason I got it into my head that it was Hardanger, which is why I suggested the Gloriana Princess perle silks

Being a silk nut, and thinking of your halo-effect, how about using a slightly dull/matt silk (e.g. Belle Soie or Splendor) in combination with a flat silk (e.g. Japanese, or Eterna to be kinder to the budget)?

Edited:
To be sure of having matching colours, you could use Au Ver a Soie's Soie Ovale (shiny flat silk) with their Soie d'Alger (spun, slightly twisted, less shiny silk) -- there aren't all that many Soie Ovale shades but they do all match a Soie d'Alger one!

Has anyone got the full range of Soie Ovale with an online colour chart that you know of, Mabel?

The fullest one I've found is here at Needle in a Haystack, but not all the shades have a picture with them. Au Ver a Soie's site I think does a shade card for Soie d'Alger which has the numbers for available Soie Ovale in bold. HTH!

Wonderful designs and will look so elegant in the silks. I hope you can find the ones you want and start these, they're so beautiful.

Such beautiful designs - they're gonna look gorgeous done the way you describe!

Beautiful designs

Lovely pieces.. Good luck with stitching them to your liking. I think having these on your antique white linen would make them look less "dull" as you call it

I've ordered floss from Vikki Clayton for the teasel.

Greyer than the real thing, but so pretty!

And lots of gold samples to see what I like for the angelica.

Tapping fingers impatiently for the email to say its been posted!!!!

ETA Now why won't that display? Lets try this

lovely greens! Which ones are they? (I mean the Vikki Clayton colour names/numbers)

Hemlock 3113 and 3115, Mabel

Well the Hemlock arrived and it is bright (brighter than grass) green, and not at all the colour that I wanted. That'll teach me to choose colours onscreen! [So I have some bright green silk going begging if anyone has a use for it!]

I didn't have the patience to wait another fortnight for different colours so bought DMC threads where I had samples in my drawer to choose from. They are 3346 and 320 - about the same tone, but different hues.



I've enhanced the colour difference for this scan. In the skein they look different but once stitched in normal light they are difficult to tell apart. I remember being surprised when I saw the original that it was stitched in two colours because you had to go up close to see. Nevertheless I think it would be nice for it to look a bit different on close inspection. So today's task is to stitch a sample with the lighter stitches in the opposite direction.

Sorry to hear the colours were not what you expected -- it is SO difficult to choose colours online! Unfortunately real shade cards (with actual thread) cost the earth so you need a very good reason to justify the expense.

Don't worry too much about the different shades not showing up until you look very closely -- they will actually have an effect, honestly. I one tried stitching part of a design that was charted in two very similar colours using just one of the two for the whole area (I think I'd either run out of the other shade, or I felt it was too much bother ), and it just looked so flat compared to the picture using the two shades!

You are right, Mabel. In artificial light I couldn't tell the difference, but in good natural light (its so nice to have sunshine, even if i can't get out into it!) it has more life, even though you have to look closely to realise its two colours.

So I will just get on with the stitching.

As for the colours, I knew it was a risk, but have got away with it in the past and was not feeling patient. Normally I can get to a shop to look at the DMC colours, even if I am then buying from Vikki. But I got some samples from Vikki for the Angelica, which I am gloating over happily!

Nearly half done

[Pic removed till I can get one without the little bit of chart, (although I think it may be out of copyright, Rose, the designer died a very long time ago, and the company that published it is no longer)]

I have realised that I see the flowers as the 'best bit' so I am going to stop the top half at this point and do the bottom half, lest I lose interest when the flowers are finished.

ETA that I have just looked at the dates - amazed that this has taken me only a week so far!

Looks great!

Ruthi wrote:Nearly half done



I have realised that I see the flowers as the 'best bit' so I am going to stop the top half at this point and do the bottom half, lest I lose interest when the flowers are finished.

ETA that I have just looked at the dates - amazed that this has taken me only a week so far!

I know it is just a small piece of the pattern but could you please remove the part of the picture that contains the chart. It is to clear and could be taken and used and that would breach copyright laws.

It's looking fantastic.

Very nice!!