A few weeks ago I met up with a group of sewing friends to try some contemporary crewel work, inspired by Katherine Shaughnessy's book, The New Crewel. The book is full of beautiful designs which are based on small squares and so they're easy to complete in an afternoon. I also like the boldness of working with wool threads, they'd quite forgiving!
I tried my hand at a sampler block. The original idea was inspired by whitework and should have been worked on white or ecru linen with white threads. I kept the monchrome theme but chose to work on a piece of claret coloured linen using deep pink wool to pick out the patterns. Like all samplers, this was a learning exercise and there were several stitches that were new to me. I especially liked spiderweb stitch and square filling stitch but my satin and soft shading stitches leave a lot to be desired!
Since we are now at nearing the end of the school year, I think my end of term report would be along the lines of "could try harder".
