Biscornu

 

This is a Hardanger biscornu I finished from a pattern I purchased at the Needlework Show in Paris, France.  I lined it with silk and filled it with ground walnut shells, could be used as a pin cushion or a paper weight.

 

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This on was made from a pattern in the English magazine Stitch, but I made several changes including the flower, it was originally a poppy.  Each petal long and short stitch with blanket stitch around the edge over wire.  The leaf is made the same way.

 

  

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You will notice I did not put the button on this on to pull the center.  I think this one would be better as a paper weight, not sure I want to put a pin in the needlepoint.

 

Needlework at the Hermitage

We recently took a cruise in the Baltic, one of the ports was St Petersburg in Russia. We took a tour of the Hermitage and I was pleased to see some needlework on display. I took pictures to share, they are not very good because of the glass but here they are for you to see.

We enjoyed the cruise starting in Holland, stopping in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Denmark and back to Holland. I was disappointed that the Danish Cross Stitch Guild shop is no longer in Copenhagen, but I found a booth at the market in Helsinki selling kits to make mittens and of course had to buy one.

Hardanger Workshop Update

I have had a few messages regarding the Hardanger Workshop I taught last week in England and thought I would tell everyone why I taught the workshop and the reason I selected the fabric I did.

I was invited to teach the workshop because I had been attending an Embroidery Class every Monday at the Community Center since January and the tutor asked if I would be interested in teaching the workshop for her. She knows I want to teach needlework classes when I return home and she thought it would be a good opportunity for me.

The fabric we used for the workshop was 28 count linen because I did not have any other options, I understand 22 count Hardanger fabric would have been easier to see but I was unable to get Hardanger fabric before the workshop. I am excited about going home where I have a wonderful shop and I have lots of supplies at home too.

Thank you to everyone who made suggestions, I appreciate the input.

Hardanger Workshop

Yesterday I taught a Hardanger Workshop at the community center here is England for seniors. There were nine ladies, some of them had done Hardanger in the past, like 40 years ago and others have never tried it before. Most of them need to get new glasses as they could not see what they were doing. I would go around and make sure they were doing OK, if they had made a mistake I would remove the kloster blocks and redo them to the same point, by the time I got back I would have to another repair job. I always explained and showed them where the error was so they would know, I told them several times to look at the back of their work a good way to find errors. The tutor was there to help and that was great, not sure I could have handled it without her. The workshop was for three hours and I think there were three who got the kloster blocks done, they were just making a square with 6-8 kloster blocks on each side. I did get three started on the buttonhole stitch around the edge.

I had brought written instructions and they were glad to have them to take home and practice. One lady said "Hardanger is not for me." I appreciate the honesty. One lady said I was a very patient teacher, even my husband said that when he arrived a few minutes before we were done. I couldn't believe how tired I was after just three hours.

I did have a good time and it was exciting when a couple of them said they would make something, hope they send me pictures I would love to see what they make.

Today we all had lunch together and several ladies thanked me and said they enjoyed the workshop, the tutor thought it went well too.

This was my first teaching experience and I learned a couple things to help me when I teach another class:
1. I would limit the number attending the class
2. I would ask that the students can see
3. The students should have a little experience working on even weave fabric

Overall it was a good practice for me and I will want to teach more when we return home.