This is such a busy time of the year! I have been working on
a Christmas gift for my 3 year old granddaughter. She likes to play dress up so
I am sewing an ancient Egyptian costume to add to her collection. I am hoping
it will still fit her as she seems to be growing like a weed right now. I’ll
post a photo of her modeling it…if it fits!
When I’m not working on the Egyptian costume I have been
working on one of my EGA Group Correspondence Courses in preparation for my
next step in the Master Craftsman program. I have been learning quite a bit
about Assisi work through the process. Most of the time we never see the
backside of stitched pieces. Why would we? So I assumed that Assisi was simply
cross stitching and backstitching. Well, not quite.
The method I have been using results in either vertical or
horizontal lines on the back of your work. When you finish a row and begin a
new one you jump up or down a row to retain that nice linear look on the back.
This does require a little planning and sometimes you need to begin a new
thread to avoid any diagonal stitches.
 |
| front side |
 |
| back side |
When stitching your motif and your border you do it so it is
reversible. The course instructor, Marion Scoular, suggests using a chenille
needle to pierce your stitches on the reverse path so your stitches lay nice
and flat.
During this process I have found a couple of interesting
sites. The first one is Tanja Berlin’s website. She offers free mini lessons in
Assisi, blackwork and goldwork.
The second offers a free pattern for an Assisi needlecase
and is from GPA designs. The link takes you right to the PDF download.
I designed a very simple scissor holder for my EGA chapter.
We will be celebrating 30 years as a chapter in 2013. I stitched one up for our
secret stitcher exchange a couple of weeks ago. We exchange our gifts at our
annual December luncheon.
My gift was a lovely stitcher’s barbell to be used as a
frame weight when stitching. This was a project that was taught at our chapter
just before I joined the group. This particular one came from the stash of one
of our longtime members who passed away and was stitched by a current member.
The gift card was one that was designed by yet another member, so this was a
very special gift indeed!
