Archives for July 2019

First, a reply from Ruth Briffett.  She and a group of ladies work at repairing and making ecclesiastical linens in Toronto.

I have removed the brown stain from blue pens used on church linens by dipping a Q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and dabbing it gently on the stain. The stain usually disappears fairly quickly and a quick rinse will wash out any remaining peroxide.

Another comment is from Heather Grief.

As a fan of the Bayeux Tapestry, I have been considering the possibility that the embroiderers did not transfer the design by marking the linen cloth, before stitching – no sign of any lines have been found.
It is possible to use tacking stitches to mark the main points (corners of buildings etc) and fill in the rest by hand.  In the Middle Ages, the design would have been drawn on parchment (prepared animal skins) – tougher than modern paper – and a needle could be pushed through to mark the relevant spots.
I suggest this as a means of avoiding the use of marking substances in modern work – you simply remove the tacking stitches as you do the embroidery, filling in the gaps by eye.

Heather, Thank you for your reply. I have never given any thought to how the design was placed on the Bayeux Tapestry linen. There are no visible lines you say. Umh!! Curious and curiouser. I cannot think that all that intricate design was stitched freehand.

Prick and pounce is the historical method of transferring a design onto fabric.  When a student at RSN,  we rubbed powdered charcoal through the prickings on the paper pattern to make a temporary line on the fabric.  Having blown away any excess charcoal, we painted the lines using blue or black watercolour paint. We used ultra fine sable brushes to make a very fine line.  It was easy to cover those fine lines with stitching.  Marking pens make such thick lines in comparison.

Maybe they had some disappearing watercolour paint they were able to use on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Let us ask the readers what they think.

In the past, since RSN, I have marked the design lines (reversing the design) on the backing fabric.  Then, I have basted the lines through to the front.  It works but is not very accurate.

Ann B.

There was a time when rainwater fell through clean skies and was regarded as the best water to use when laundering very fine needlework.  That is no longer the case.  Also, washing instructions in old embroidery and lace books are completely out-of-date.  Even new books, authored by people who should know better, neglect to specify distilled water.  Please mentally remember that I really – really – mean distilled.

Let us think about textiles made of natural materials.  This means linen, cotton, silk, and wool.  Not synthetics.  When preparing for stitching, I pre-rinse them in hot distilled water which is as hot as used when laundering.  This removes the stiffening put in by the manufacturer as well as pre-shrinking it.  The water looks cloudy.  That is how you know that the stiffeners have been removed.  I usually line/back with lightweight semi-sheer cotton, and that definitely must be pre-shrunk before you attach it to cotton, linen, silk, or wool.

Why a backing?  Because dark-coloured threads sometimes cast a shadow that can be seen when viewing embroidery from the front.  A backing prevents this and gives an extra place where you can anchor thread ends.  It will/can be of a tighter weave, so if you are using counted techniques or a loose weave fabric, your stitches will not slide around.  If you are an embroiderer, you know exactly what I mean.

I always, always, always back my embroidery fabrics usually with cotton batiste or well-washed cotton fabrics.  Embroidery fabrics used to be of good quality but now they are so flimsy that there is little substance to support the stitching. Ann

It must be noted that you should not line/back table napkins and linen towels.  When you place an embroidery face down on a fluffy towel to iron, it is the cotton lining that will first feel the heat.  It gives scorching protection to the fabric below.

Pre-shrinking the embroidery fabric can make it more difficult to stitch.  If you choose to not preshrink it, you absolutely must pre-shrink the lining.  If you do not, the first time you wash the item you will have to cut out the lining.  Reason:  Different textiles from different manufacturers will shrink at different rates.  In the worst case scenario, you can salvage embroidery without a lining, but not without the embroidery!

Professional conservationists and restorers often have access to de-ionized water.  You will have to improvise and use distilled water that can be made at home.

Distilled water can be purchased in grocery stores, but becomes expensive in large quantities.  Do not confuse distilled with spring water.  To distil, you have to convert water to steam, and then back to water.  I have a one-gallon Kenmore Countertop Distiller from Sears 25 years ago.  Computer search “countertop water distillers” and you will find several manufacturers and videos.

Fill the canister with tap water.  Boil it at a high temperature so that the steam rises into an upper chamber.  It will then return to water that comes out a spout.  A separate container is set below the spout to collect the distilled water.

City water contains added chemicals meant for other purposes that will lodge in textile fibres.  This water is from lakes and reservoirs fed by acid rain.  Well water may be heavily “laced” with iron particles (which are not visible to the human eye).  These remain inside textile fibres and might appear as rust spots years later. Water may also contain manganese (which is what turns white household linens yellow).  The liquid that remains at the bottom of the canister is –  My best description is: it looks like a Coca Cola syrup!

Jeri Ames in Maine USA (81)
Lace and Embroidery Resource Center

Jeri,  My thanks, and OUR thanks for all this information.  Many people are unaware that they should consider the additives in fabric and the chemicals in marking pens.  We all appreciate your words gained from experience.  The world and the goods available to us have changed radically over the last few decades.  What used to be reliable and works, no longer does.

We used to buy needlework supplies in privately-owned needlework shops.  Owners attended a variety of professional and personally-rewarding events (seminars, classes, etc.), shared what they knew about old and new products, and provided support to local guilds.  Now, they have been driven out of business by national crafting chain stores that are open day and night.  Clerks in these stores usually have no experience using the products they sell.  By demanding deep discounts, they have driven down the quality of supplies we use.  It is up to us to research products before we shop, and to seek suppliers who carry items of better quality.

Let’s start by thinking about the blue vanishing pens with different names used to transfer designs to cotton and linen fabrics we intend to embroider.  Commercial products in this category may not have been time-tested for the long-term survival of items we create.  It is nearly impossible to check the quality standards of manufacturers.

It was well over 30 years ago when the first vanishing blue marking pens became available.  They now have several different commercial names.  Teachers and designers loved using them when making embroidery kits for classes because they could use a Q-tip dipped in cool water to erase incorrect blue marks.  We experimented at the time, and if I remember correctly – when the blue was left on the fabric and ironed, it changed permanently to beige or brown.

Testing of these and all chemical products (including glue) is needed because manufacturers are never held responsible for what happens to art.  Future conservators and restoration experts will have no idea what chemicals these pens have left behind that may become a permanent blemish in needlework art.  Manufacturers may have changed formulas over the years, and we have been told nothing.  Chemicals may cause something drastic over time, like rot and stains.

Another example would be what happens to plastics after 20 years or so.  That means any product used for needlework that contains petroleum should be avoided, including some synthetic textiles.

Be very wary of adhesives and glues (mentioned above), including backings that have adhesives that are sold for framing needlework.  Think.  In addition to chemicals, these contain ingredients that very tiny organisms like to eat.  We know this because they leave tiny traces of their presence behind.

Glue/paste and starch were/are sometimes made at home, using flour and/or potatoes.  These are also attractive to tiny critters.  When you put needlework away in storage, it is wise to soak out old starches made from potatoes.  Not only are you dealing with food, but with one that will cause oxidation and turns textiles brown.

Jeri Ames in Maine USA (81)
Lace and Embroidery Resource Center

I remember tales of altar frontals that had been stiffened with flour and water. The mice loved to eat the paste and destroyed many textiles.  A.B.

Jeri Ames is, or has been, a member of The Embroiderers’ Guild of America 50+ years, American Needlepoint Guild 47 years, Embroiderers’ Guild (England), International Organization of Lace 40+ years, The Lace Guild (England), International Bobbin & Needle Lace Organisation (OIDFA) 22 years, Costume Society of America,  Arachne (internet  lace correspondence), plus several local guilds.  She owns an up-to-date library containing 4,000+ books about embroidery and lace, another room devoted to needlework magazines and bulletins going back 150 years, and a studio.

Fellow stitchers.  Please taken Jeri’s good advice to heart.  It comes from knowledge and experience.

Creating an embroidery is an expression of our soul.  Whether it has been easy, complex, a challenge or a joy, each one of our creations is important to us.  We labour over them and when they are completed, we want to launch them into the world with as much finesse as we can muster.  Although we can mount them ourselves, the framing part of cutting mattes, glass and frames someone else has to do.  We just do not have the stock or the equipment to do it.

First, embroideries should be mounted on acid-free foam core board. They need to be mounted grain perfect and secured firmly over the mounting board.  I have covered this process in detail in my ebook, Hand Stitch Recognizable Summer Flowers which is published by ebookIt.  This is not an expensive book and is worth buying just for the instructions on how to do this correctly and easily.  Plus, there is a lot else in the book that you will find useful.

“The Caribou that went ‘that away'” was completed and mounted in the method detailed in my book.  I took it to well-known framers.  First, I was surprised at the limited choice of both mattes and frames but we then made a selection together.  When it came back, the embroidery was not mounted straight within the oval matte.  It was twisted/tilted.  The vertical and horizontal laid work thread lines were not vertical, or horizontal.  It was disappointing to say the least.  I forgot to take a picture of it for you.

Then I took it to a private framer.  She suggested a much darker matte and frame with forest green tones. This works a lot better.  The embroidery now appears as if you are looking out of a window and can see the caribou trail with the trees and the wind blowing the sky and clouds.  She found though, that she could not do a perfect job.  The first framers had glued the mounted embroidery to a backing board and that she was unable to remove that backing board.  She included the light green matte from the first framing.,  You will note that the surrounding 1/2″ to the embroidery is not even.  And that is the way it is and, this is why it is that way.

The embroidery itself is not in good camera focus here because of the depth of the matting.

Why do I tell you this?

Because you need to know and be aware that all framers are not equal.  When you have done your ultra best work, you want to locate someone who will treat you, and your work with the respect that it deserves and do the best they are able for you.

I remember a few years ago that Mary Corbet completed an intricate and difficult piece of gold work.  The framers left a visible fabric pucker on the front of her work.  Her perfect piece was marred.  It had been treated disrespectfully.

I stitched an intricate and difficult piece of white work when I was in my 40s.  The framers made it look good but when we took it apart for reframing with acid-free materials, I found that the edges of the fabric had been stapled to a piece of ordinary and dirty white cardboard.  I was horrified.  I washed the embroidery to remove any destructive particles and remounted it on acid-free foam core board.  It was then framed properly and has been donated to the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design together with my samplers from The Royal School of Needlework.

Be wise. Respect yourself and your achievement. Mount your embroidery yourself which is the only way you will be sure it has been done properly.  It is also cheaper than having the framers do it.  Find the very best framer in your area and make sure they understand how important your work is to you.  Yes, it is expensive.  But after you have put your heart and soul into that embroidery, it is better not to get a second-rate framing job.

P.S.  I think that this embroidery has an atmosphere.  I get a feeling of cold, of spring being around the corner, of something about to happen.  The scene is not static.  How did this happen?  I have no idea.  It just happened! It was a tough one to stitch and I like it better now it is completed and properly framed.

See you again sometime soon.   Ann

This is an experiment.  The background fabric is a fine and lightweight white silk backed with white cotton and all the threads are silk.  I do not usually have the luxury of stitching with silk, but being on the elderly side of life, I wondered what I was saving them for.  Also, my ambitions are greater than energy and this took a very long time. Being experimental, there was also a lot of trial, error and reverse stitching.

Without any lines on the fabric, it was necessary to mark the grain directions with basting threads to give me some sense of space and direction.  The design is made to fit an oval frame with a 1/2″ space between the stitching and the frame.  I became desperate for some stable markings and used a blue ink pen on the right-hand side to mark the frame position.  This was a big mistake.  The marks would have been visible if I had used the original frame.  To cover this ‘ink error’, the framing had to be rethought.  More about mounting and framing later.

The sky is laid work technique using flat silk. The long threads in the sky are vertical and for the frozen pond, they are horizontal.  Both are grain perfect.  The flat silk threads were a gift and I had a limited range of colour as well as a very limited length, ie, barely enough.

The long threads are characteristic of laid work and must be secured with crossing threads.  The direction of these security threads show that the wind is blowing which is normal in the north.  There is some frozen water, the start of the trees and the Inukshuk is laid out on masking tape.  He proved to be too tall and out of proportion for the landscape.

The trees are all stitched with a twisted silk thread which is much easier to work with.  Casual use of fishbone stitch achieved the effect of northern evergreens.  Note the blue in marks!

The Inukshuk is made of jade fragments that were in a bracelet I purchased in Victoria, British Columbia.  The holes through the stones are in any direction making it difficult to attach them to the background as intended.   This one was at least the fourth attempt.  There is a limit on reverse stitching before the fabric is damaged and this damage becomes visible.  The trees generally are stitched unevenly and this was intentional.  The northern forests withstand harsh weather and growth is erratic and the trees are wind sculptured.

The caribou tracks are running stitch which has been whipped in some places.

The next entry will be on the framing of this piece.  It has much to tell us all.