Colcha Embroidery 2012 EGA Seminar Class

Since I can’t post much of my Christmas stitching – most are gifts, I will show you some progress I am making on one of my other Seminar classes, Colcha Embroidery.  I told you last about it in this blog post.

 Colcha is a Spanish word meaning bed covering or coverlet.  As early as 1598, the Spanish Colonial settlers brought colcha embroidery to New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Bed coverings were embroidered with this unique couched stitch and the stitch was named the colcha. Traditionally it would be worked on hand-woven wool called sabanilla using handspun and dyed wool yarns made from the Churro Sheep. Sabanilla is a loosely woven fabric approximately 12-22 threads per inch.

 The sabanilla were only 30 inches wide, limited by the size of the loom, and strips would be sewn together to make the bed cover. Then all of the fabric was embroidered, using the colcha stitch, to cover the seams and keep the top from puckering. In addition, the embroidery on the top is quite dense and created a double layer of wool making the bed covering that much warmer - which was needed before our gas furnaces!

Our class piece was done on an 11 inch square piece of silk/linen monk’s cloth using wool yarn from ordinary sheep. It is a surface stitch with very little on the back, and is quite fun to do once you get the hang of it! I am not sure whether I will frame this when done, or make a wall hanging or put it on a tote bag.  Time will tell!

Happy Stitching!

Monday Quote

"Dwell in possibility" - Emily Dickinson

 

Echo Canyon Completed!

Well today I finished Echo Canyon. One of my 2012 EGA National Seminar Classes. I took the class Nov 1 & 2 and have been working on it ever since! So I finished it today, 24 days later. This is a new record, fasted completion of a Seminar Project taken home (I did take a one day punch embroidery class a few years back and finished the pin in class). It is on 11 inch by 13 inch stretcher bars.

If you want a bit of history of this project here is my last post on the subject. My husband has suggested he would pay for the framing (I want to have the mat the same shape as the boot) as a Christmas present. Not sure it is wise for him to know just how much it costs to frame stuff these days!

A Pumpturkey & Happy Thanksgiving

For those of us in the States - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Everyone else, Happy Thursday!

Here is what I call a Pumpturkey on our front porch.

Happy Day All!

Monday Quote

"Love is the opener as well as the closer of eyes"

- George MacDonald

 

George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister who lived from 1824 to 1905.

Echo Canyon Progress Report

When last seen, the horses were not running across the canyon floor, only one basket had been stitched and very little had been done in the area below the canyon (background). I have been stitching on this a little bit each night and took this last night before I added more of the background.

The stitching has not been hard, and the stitch choices of the designer really work well together. I can't tell you the name of the stitch I am doing now for the background, but will try to on my next post, (I am doing this post on my lunch break and the charts are at home). The horses are fabric that has been put on with the iron on interfacing and then floss tails added. She gave us three different brown batik fabrics and I made horses out of them all picking the three I liked best.

That about covers it for now, but I will add that Jeanette Rees was an excellent teacher and I would recommend a class from here if you get a chance.

TUSAL for November

Here is my Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long (TUSAL) for November's new moon. Most of the orts near the top (as if you can tell) are from Echo Canyon which I posted a bit about below.

Wondering what all the fuss is about Orts and the New moon? Check out this post by DaffyCat and learn more.

Until next time......