What did the Lazy Wench see?

The Lazy Wench saw all sorts of interesting things on her tour. Sometimes, she found that the pictures in the books just didn't show what was actually done in needlework.

At the Williamson Art Gallery, The Lazy Wench was able to examine, but not photograph a 17th century bed curtain in great and glorious detail. The first thing she noticed was that what she had long thought to be rows of concentric chain stitch to create shading on the leaves was in fact rows of concentric stem stitch. This was found to be the rule, not the exception on other bed hangings she examined.

While at Gawthorpe Hall, The Lazy Wench was shown many examples of whitework; Ayershire, Mountmellick and the like.The christening gowns were on glass cambric that looked too fine to support a stem stitch. It actually WAS too fine. No stem stitch was used. Instead, a variation on a laced running stitch was used, creating tendrils of great detail without distorting the glass cambric. Only by looking on the reverse, under magnification could this be determined.

Also at Gawthorpe, when examples of Mountmellick work were examined, it was easy to see that unskilled workers completed a large portion of the samples in the collection. This caused The Lazy Wench to understand why this form of needlework was known for creativity and no two leaves alike. Without the strictures of rules learned in other techniques, the embroiderers could create freely. The samples in the collection often bore no resemblance to actual leaves, grains or other flora.

At the Gallery of Costume in Platt Hall, The Lazy Wench was overwhelmed by the depth and variety of stomachers in the collection. The general form for a formal stomacher seemed to be floral, with a central branch supporting a single, large bloom at the top and with the side branches curving off to add width (or not), supporting other blooms. Here, our intrepid traveller was amazed at the interpretation of shading that was entering the embroiderer's vocabulary and also at the quality of the professional stitching. To The Lazy Wench's untrained eye, the cruder the stitching, the more likely it was to be done by a professional. Why the contrast? The professionals used stumpwork, with quickly couched down bits of wood. The overlying embroidery wore away, leaving only the crude couching behind.

To compare and contrast the collections of the Liverpool Cathedral and the Metropolitan Cathedral seems quite unfair. The Elizabeth Hoare Collection of Church Embroidery, at the Liverpool cathedral is an incredible collection of goldwork on albs, frontals, anything realted to churches. Some of it was fairly recent, some dated back to the time of Henry VIII's destruction of Catholic churches, monastaries and convents. No expense, in terms of time or materials was spared. Jaw dropping beauty, here. Awe inspiring detail. The afternoon after we saw this, we visited the Metropolitan Cathedral to visit with the Catholic stitchers completing vestments and banners for use in this very modern cathedral. The stitchers are all volunteers, the budget is tight and no precious metals are used. Instead, the stitchers work with braids, iron on stabilizers, lame, rayon, on other modern materials to produce vestments and banners for use in the day to day running and decoration of the cathedral. The Sister who guided us through the cathedral commented that they had had three sets of doves stolen that were used to decorate their quiet chapel.

At the Quaker Tapestry Exhibition Centre, I learned about the Quaker Stitch, a new stitch created solely to make precise lettering. Think of combining a stem and a back stitch, and that's what you get. If you want to make it thicker, you can either work multiple rows, or you can work with thicker fiber, or both.

Muncaster Castle and Owl Center had many fine damask dinner napkins as well as an unrestored 17 century bed hanging set out on a table for us to examine. The Lazy Wench put on her white gloves, unfolded the tapestry and had a blast. More of the stem stitch where she had expected to find chain and also the boring parts of the rolling hills at the base of the tree of life were done in bargello stitching. It made a great deal of sense and worked very well visually. The Lazy Wench was not able to determine if the Irish stitch was used, but she has the feeling not. The fiber used was a worsted spun single ply of wool.

At Hardwick Hall, there was so much to look at The Lazy Wench hardly knows where to start. First off, the hall must have been used as a hunting lodge at some point in it's life. There are antlers all over the main hall on the first floor. Members of our group spoke with the docents, who were claiming 600 stitches to a square inch worked with a single strand of silk. We whipped out tape measures and magnifiers and determined that the piece in question was worked 14 to the inch. The one across the room was worked at 22 to 24 per inch, giving at most 576 stitches to the square inch. An even closer inspection was done on the piece titled 'Fancie of a Fowler' especially to the house and person in the upper left corner. There is a lot of gold used in the house and we determined that not only was the braid stitch used, but that paralell rows of chain stitch were used, particularly around the windows. A french knot was suspected as the eye of the taller person standing in front of the house and The Lazy Wench has actually asked Santina Levy, via one of the docents, to let me know what is the earliest known usage of french knots. The piece in question dates from before 1601, as it is listed on an inventory from that year.

Also at Hardwick were several strapwork pieces, done in cloth of silver. It was easy to see that the design was cut out of the cloth of silver similar to the way pieces for Hawaiian quilting are cut. There is no bending of strips, the grain is completely true throughout the piece. This means this type of work was rather wasteful of the cloth of silver. We could not determine if edges were turned under during the applique proces or if some particular stitch was worked over them. The pieces were hanging above eye level in dim light. We did our best.

Bess of Hardwick was Mary Queen of Scots jailor for a considerable length of time, though Mary never actually lived at Hardwick, but at Chatsworth. At Hardwick, there is a memorial room done up with canvaswork trim that Mary is believed to have done. The pattern repeats and there are what appears to be miles of this trim applied in stripes to bed hangings, chairs, vanity tablecloths and footstools. The sofa alone was spared. It isn't a particularly elegant trim, but The Lazy wench was able to chart it out for herself only to find it in a book she already owned. The Wench supposes that Mary had the pattern repeat memorised well before the first seat cushion was complete.

In the high great chamber at Hardwick, the canopy over the best chairs has slips, every chair in the room has slips, and many are obviously worn from being sat on. It wasn't possible to get close to the hangings, but the chairs were right out there to be examined. Mostly blah florals, nothing unusual. However, the floor of the high great chamber was covered in rushes. The Web Wench took a moment to examine the mundane floor covering. The rushes had been braided, in a wide braid of perhaps a footwidth wide and then sewn together, side by side to create a floor covering that had a peculiar, but not unpleasant odor. I was told that when the rushes got worn, the larger areas were cut up and used either elsewhere in the hall or in smaller houses also open to the public.

The Bowes Museum curator pulled out many seat cushion covers in canvaswork for us to look at. They have an extensive collection and can display pretty much the history of canvaswork for apholstery in France. The Bowes were Francophiles and didn't collect much that was English. They even have a seat cushion that has people on it; a rarity, because you don't want to sit on a person.

At the Whitby Museum, our intrepid Wench hoped to find Guernseys, but there weren't any available. There was an extensive collection of Victorian samplers, many of them charted. There was also information on the local jet carving industry. Jet is a fossil material that can be traced back to what type of tree it used to be.

At the Wirral Embroidery Guild meeting, our inquiring Wench found that the locals were very friendly and was completely surprised to find that that at the meeting, no stitching is done. There are lectures and presentations, but nobody whips out a WIP and sets stitches. She heard a lecture on the process of making needles by hand, a tedious cottage industry that involves many seemingly redundant steps. She got to hold a needle that dated from BC. It would make a good a yarn darner, if a little long.

At the Lady Lever Art Gallery, there wasn't much needlework, but there was an incredible selection of art. Rosetti and Turner head the list. There, the Wench found several sculptures that were simply magnificent. She chatted with the guards over interpretations of these sculptures and completely enjoyed herself. She realised that Rosetti's paintings are rarely shown in their entirety, as they are in sections much like a cartoon, with multiple images combined into a single whole, but each complete by itself.

Chatsworth is the most beautiful building the Lazy Wench has ever been in in her life. Not only is the architecture pleasing to the eye, the contents of the rooms are all mind bogglingly beautiful, rare, valuable and harmonious. The gardens were laid out by Capability Brown, a man with an eye for both beauty and the future. The Lazy Wench was successful at traversing the maze, but it wasn't easy. If you send her money, she'll send you some hints.

Sutton Park contained several national treasures. One was a piece of furniture, but the other was an embroidered cabinet of surpassing size. Estimated at four times the 'usual' size of an embroidered cabinet, it stood on it's own stand and contained secret drawers. The top lifted up, but was too fragile to be displayed. The secret cabinet mechanism worked smoothly, after four hundred years. That's workmanship. Much of the stitching had not faded significantly, as the cabinet doors closed across the front and protected it. Because the doors were there, the stitching wasn't padded work, but was florals in shaded silks. The Wench couldn't take pictures, alas.

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