Hand Needlework by Ilona Payne
Long ago and far away… well okay just up the road and a couple of years ago, Someone asked me for a wax cloth! I blanched… truly…
I knew exactly what he wanted and why. I also knew exactly how to make such a thing but the thought filled me with utter dread…
I don’t recall what I said at the time. I’m sure it was polite. In any case, I dutifully relieved him of all his old candle ends and said I’d do my best.
Here is another chalice pall. I rather enjoy making these because as they are quite small they are a bit of instant gratification when I’m yearning to embroider something. Here’s the design transferred onto the linen:
Continue reading “Chalice Pall: 2”
Which of course gets me thinking of Provence and that I would like to go there. I imagine the scent as one approaches Grasse (which is really more the Riviera but who cares…), surely if I have gone to seed I can go to Grasse too?! No?
Continue reading “Provenance”
Let me count the ways. And show you this IHS monogram, embroidered three ways…
Continue reading “ΙΗΣΟΥΣ”
A quick post. Here are some credence table cloths. I have just finished stitching them… This particular pair of credence tables is slightly unusual in construction in that they have raised corners. The cloths have inverted corners so that they fit snugly around these indents.
Continue reading “Credence Table Cloths”
What an invitation! How exciting! Of course I want to explore the crypt. After all, wouldn’t you?
I was invited to participate in this activity (a jolly outing) after I’d made an altar cloth for this particular parish. Hmm, a bit of an Ecumenical Exercise since this parish is of Another Denomination. Anyway, one of the sacristans I’d chatted with about the cloth, and another altar guild lady, were planning on clearing out at LEAST half a century’s worth of sewing supplies and whatnot, which was stored, she told me, in the crypt. As you can imagine, my imagination ran amok; underground, vaulting, stone chambers and all that…
Continue reading “Into The Crypt…!”
I have a new metal thread that I’ve been wanting to experiment with. It is made in France by the same company which puts out a line of very good quality silk thread. Most metal threads are couched, or laid down on the surface of the embroidery. Apparently this one can be stitched through the fabric without becoming a snarly mess!
Continue reading “A Chalice Pall”
Here are two purificators. I made one of them a little while back and one just this week from a remnant of linen left over from the monstrance veil I made a couple of weeks ago. I keep usable pieces of linen and make ‘odd’ linens or handkerchiefs to give as gifts here and there. No one seems to mind an extra purificator, especially if it’s handmade, and surely everyone should have a linen hankie in their pocket or purse, the better to deal with scraped juvenile knees and weeping women, or weeping men for that matter!
Continue reading “A Couple of Purificators”
This little something has been sitting on my worktable for just a bit longer than it should.
It’s an altar cloth, with a small hole in it…
How the hole got there, I cannot say… I shall not speculate…
This is an in-between project…
Years ago I was lucky enough to be able to visit Bayeux. I spent hours in the dimly lit former refectory (it was surely more brightly lit when filled with seminarians!) entranced by the artistry of the famous 11th Century Tapestry. Of course it isn’t a tapestry at all but a narrative embroidery, all surviving 68 metres of it.