Stewart, a cousin of Faith, has sent me a photo of the piece of embroidery he inherited that was stitched by Adeline Atkins. It is totally different from the pieces that are treasured by Faith. Adeline was a very talented stitcher and could turn her hand to different types of embroidery expression as you can see.
Maybe this one was a commercial design. The layout and colours are all well balanced and the result is a really interesting piece of wall arts. If she designed it herself, I am totally impressed.
This bird has an unusual mix of colours but they work well together. They blend as well as being vivid. I cannot see, even in an enlargement, if the threads are wool, cotton floss or silk. Most likely cotton floss as some of the stitching is so fine and generally, wool produces more of an ‘effect’ rather than detail.
The detail and colours in this bird are fascinating. Note the three white lines on the blue, white french knots on the pink and the inclusion of turquoise. Wow!
This is the upper right quadrant. The detail in the tail feathers is amazing and includes whipped running stitch and white french knots. Considering that the background is white, they could sort of ‘disappear’, but they don’t do that.
I am unable to see what the background fabric is but it could be a closely woven cotton such as is used for drapery lining. But that is only a guess on my part. Linen fabric would be more normal but with linen, the texture and weave would be more apparent. What you can see here is little black specks in the fabric that are probably age spots. After all, this embroidery is probably about 90 years old. There are no black pattern lines visible anywhere.
Thank you Stewart, for sending me this. Would you believe but another stitching by Adeline has surfaced and will be the subject of my next blog.
My fellow stitchers, your work, your creativity is important. Future generations will treasure your embroideries in the way that Faith and Stewart do. Know this and make it easy for your heirs and heiresses. Date and PRINT your name somewhere in the framing of your work and add as much information as you can. It will be appreciated. Guessing is fun but it can be terribly wrong.
What a talented lady she was.
I really love her work.
Disna, Thank you so much for your reply and comment. Yes, she was a very talented lady both being an artist and a stitcher. That is a winning combination. Her work is treasured by those who have her pieces of embroidery. Best wishes, Ann
Really beautiful piece.
Barb, Glad you liked it. Thank you for commenting. Ann