Enthoven, Jaqueline - The Stitches of Creative Embroidery

I saw a reference to this somewhere, as a book that talked about the historical origins of stitches, so I got it from the library.
I now want my own copy.
Jacqeline Enthoven talks about stitches from their historical and their ethnic origins, meaning there are many stitches that you don’t normally see in an embroidery dictionary.
She also talks about building your own sampler and how to put stitches together to form new stitches, or a border.
I think the Amazon reviews say the rest :
http://www.amazon.com/Stitches-Creative-Embroidery-Jacqueline-Enthoven/dp/0887401112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251167557&sr=1-1
And also, some of the index (Click to enlarge)

Future Projects

I’ve got a lot planned to do over the next year or so.
I’m about half way through my Sampler

and I think it may take another 6 months to complete. (It’s already taken 6 months). Oh boy, have I learnt a lot!
This will be pushed out a bit by some other projects that I intend to do simultaneously once I get back to it.
Firstly, an illumination,

This creatures appears on the front cover of  one of the hardcopy editions of “World Without End” by Ken Follett.
It is intended as a follow up present to this one

which still needs it’s black background completed. The progression on this piece came to a compete halt when I hit my relapse. Both are intended for Nick.
Nick does so much for me, and deserves far more of my art in return. I want to finish the “Ick” piece as soon as I can – as soon as I’m steady enough to paint black into those tiny white corners!
I am also doing Mary Corbet’s Long and Short Stitch lessons, admittedly at my own pace. I started them last night.
And then, a bit further down the line – a project that makes a basket from thin card and (lovely) material, the card being printed with old botanical prints and then aged. I have an old vintage nightgown in that apricot/beige colour they had then, which should look just fantastic to use as the material inside..
This is the first step :
http://needleprintprojects.blogspot.com/2009/08/basket-projet-part-1.html

We are still downloading panels to be aged and trimmed with bias binding.
When the sampler is finished I may either
a) do a completely unexpected project, or a Les Turpin Delport kit or something like that, or
b) start on something I have my heart fairly firmly fixed upon to do at some point……………
This is an embroidered Book Binding from the British Library of Book Bindings. I may not do this exact one (there are several, similiar) but the idea is a large flower in satin thread in long and short stitches, framed by silver purl which has been heaving padded to form a frame.


The other project that talks to me (and know you know all my embroidery project aspirations!) is this piece :

It appears near the beginning of Clare Hanham’s book “Beginner’s Guide to Silk Shading”, and is accompanied by the comment
“….was given to me by Mrs Elizabeth Boswell”.
It would be quite a challange to get the period colours selected, and placed correctly.(I’m not thinking about legal issues here)
To me, this would be a very advanced project for sometime later down the track.

Twixt Art and Nature Rose

Margaret of Life, Needlework and Everything is posting a tutorial on how to do a Tudor Stumpwork rose at the moment - she's up to the third post on the subject : (http://lifeneedleworkandeverything.blogspot.com/2009/08/stumpwork-sepals-close-up.html).

If you've been following how I did my dusty pink rose - well, she does things differently, and achieves a lovely rose.

Of particular interest is how she does her sepals.

I've been talking to her a fair bit in the comments, because these roses are fairly dear to my heart, and I thought I'd show you the rose I'd really like to do one day. It's from "Twixt Art and Nature