The Episcopal Church, into which I was born, is known to be a stickler for details. And here I pause to wonder if that's why I find it attractive, or if it is in part the cause of my own fascination with details. In any case, after some 10,000+ stitches and 30+ hours of work, the 100" x 26" fair linen was completed the day before Maunday Thursday. On deadline, in other words.
I did take some process photos along the way, as I haven't done this kind of embroidery for a while and want to remember what and how I did it this time so that I can refer back. The linen is a mid-weight Belgian linen from Almy (60 threads per inch) and the thread is 80/3 linen from Burnley and Trowbridge, which turned out to be a bit too slubby, so I'll be switching to 100/3 linen threads from Londonderry in the future.
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| Outline drawn in heat-erasable pen using a light box borrowed from my grandkiddos |
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| Outline backstitched with two threads, then whipped with a single thread |
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| Close-up of finished stitching after ironing erasable pen |
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| Finished size 3" |
And while I didn't think to get a close-up photo of the fair linen once it was ironed and on the altar, you can see it draped over the end of the altar in this photo taken the day before Easter ...
One final note: I emailed my iPhone photos to my laptop thinking it would be easier to compose this way ... it wasn't (sigh).
