I came across the Victorian Motto Shoppe some time ago, in my travels 'round the interwebs looking at samplers and threads, as one does, and I said to myself, "interesting!" -- Laura Ingalls did some embroidery on perforated paper, mentioning designs and silks that were in the barrel that came for the family on the first train that made it through at the end of The Long Winter -- and I thought little more of it until for some reason a few months ago, it snuck into my mind again and would not leave. I chose this one for reminding me of my German heritage. The designer (and owner of the Etsy shop), Nancy Turner, assures us in the instructions that it is very easy and will take only "a few evenings" to complete! It took me a bit less than a week, actually, but that might have been because I had to forget a lot of cross-stitch method, and partly because getting the curves pleasing while limited to 45°-angled stitches took a bit of trial and error! but this was not particularly onerous, and the heavy paper is sturdy enough to withstand a fair amount of (gentle) picking out and re-stitching. I'm a sucker for a bit of satin stitch anyways!
I changed the originally-red flowers to blue, as they reminded me of poinsettias, and that made it a bit Christmassy -- all four flowers took four out of the five strands in a skein of Gentle Arts' "Crystal Lake".
Starting and stopping threads took a bit of finagling, as there aren't many places to secure ends, and you have to be careful about crossing an open hole in the paper, as the thread will show. I tried a couple of different ways as I went, and found that what seemed to me the most efficient and secure way was to bury the end between the paper and the satin stitches as much as possible! though obviously there are still some ends coming out at the back. These can be trimmed, which I haven't done yet. (Nor have I poked out the numerous "hanging chads" ...)
I thought this was going to be just a single flirtation with perforated-paper mottoes, but I could be persuaded to do another. In the meantime, here are some links about the history of perforated-paper embroidery, with numerous examples --
- a post at Mary Corbet's "Needle 'n Thread"
- another at Adirondack Girl @ Heart
- Claudia Dutcher Kistler's entire website devoted to perforated-paper embroidery!
- two posts at Tricia Wilson Nguyen's "Thistle Threads," here (these "lace"-edged cards are I think the kind that Laura Ingalls worked) and here (some free charts for small pictorial projects)
- and an alas now-defunct blog by Jennifer Clement of Sage Stitchworks with photos of all of her company's designs (most in the motto style)
(I don't know what the ratio actually is, but there are some Victorian mottoes worked in tent stitch, whereas many more seem to have been worked in this 45°-angled stitch -- quite a number of the latter in variegated thread!)
The other project I finished recently is the "Awake My Soul" cross stitch by La-D-Da, which I thought would be a good piece to donate to my choir's next fund-raiser. I missed this year's, since I had to wait so long for the fabric, but I really wanted to use what was in the original chart, which is 36-count "Legacy" by Picture This Plus. The threads are a combination of Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Arts, and DMC. Now I have to look for a frame!
How interesting! I don't remember ever hearing about this craft, though I have read Lara Ingalls' series several time.
I love your piece, the colours are beautiful.
Posted by: dawninnl | April 27, 2024 at 07:09 AM