IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery A Little Progress

IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery A Little Progress: Goldwork embroidery is so much fun!  There is really nothing else like it. Working with threads that sparkle and shine, shimmer and glimmer is a feast for the eyes. It is great fun when the stitching moves along, and good progress is made. Then, once in a while, there is a little stumbling block that lands in the middle of the path and causes some moments of  – well – frustration would be a polite word.

Goldwork Stitching

The stitching of the goldwork threads is pretty straightforward for the IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design. This project is the IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Pattern with the cross background talked about here:  Simple Design Framed Up  Two strands of the K1 gold thread are laid side by side, starting down the middle of a section of the cross. Dealing with the ends of the cross is going to be a matter of trial and error.

 I have a photo of a lovely banner made by Watts and Company between the years 1916 to 1918.  The banner is Christ seated on the throne of victory and giving Peter the Keys to the Kingdom.  Christ is wearing a crown that has the most beautiful stitching imaginable. It is an exquisite piece of Ecclesiastical Embroidery which has three Fleurs as the design motif for the crown.  The photo shows the detail for the Fleurs on the crown fairly well.  The hope for my project is to see if that stitching can be imitated on my cross ends.

Gold Thread Branching Technique

The plan is to branch the gold threads from the center off to the side and add additional gold threads as needed. The tails from the sides will end up plunging next to the center.  That is the plan at least for now. We will see how it works out.

At the moment, I am not turning the gold threads back on themselves, but I think I will have to give that a try. The plunging of the gold threads is a bit challenging.  The most likely reason is the plunging has to happen through three layers of fabric. The Kona cotton, in hindsight, was perhaps not needed as a backing behind the linen after all.  Chalk it up to learning on the job.  The fear was that the Silk Dupioni would get torn up without proper support. But there is perhaps such a thing as too much support and backing.

Background on the project can be found here:

IHS Ecclesiastical Design First Stitches

New Projects in the Works Soon

Tomorrow I will reevaluate and see if I like this before it gets too far along. Since the three cross arms are slightly different, they will all have to be carefully reviewed to see if the same stitching plan will work on all four cross ends. There may be a few things that could be done differently if the goldwork were restarted before this Ecclesiastical Embroidery design gets moving too far along. Time to sleep on it and look at the project with new eyes in the morning. Wishing you all happy stitching dreams.

Solo Dei Gloria

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Imitation Japanese Goldwork Embroidery Threads

Late Night Progress

Long Awaited Threads

Rose Vestments and IHS Design Index

Future Projects Design Time