Reliquery box

Out of the weekend of general craftiness at Casa de Clermont, a plot was hatched by my friends to build this box. I've started work and charted and stitched a sample for the first pattern I decided to get even closer to period practice and stitched this with a flat silk, Soie Oval. I have to say not only is the result very close to close up shots of period pieces, but its gorgeous! For comparison, here is a picture in the same light of sample in similar colors in a spun silk (Rainbow Gallery Splendor) And for fun, here is a nice close up of a period piece from the same time and place: We've started chatting about other construction details and I'm very excited about this project. I will post updated pictures and samples as we make progress. I've got 4 patterns charted so far and I think we will start work on the panels as soon as we order the silk.

Pattern #16

This little swatch got lost along the way somewhere, so I picked it up this weekend and finished it up. Behold, pattern #16! I'm going to have to do another round of charting, since this was my last un-stitched chart. I've got some other stitching to do while I'm in charting mode, so I'll get to keep stitching. I've got a tunic that I need to finish before the next event, so I have enough garb to make it through the weekend.

Pattern #15

Here's pattern #15! I really like this one. I think that you could use it fairly neatly as a border as well.

The interlocking red is stitched correctly, but the edges have several problems. On each point, some are clean points and some have little "V" notches to connect to a diamond. The points along the edges are haphazard in which have notches. I did manage to do them correctly on the middle row, so the pattern clicks. I'm considering re-stitching the sample, but I figured I'd post it anyway. I was just chatting away while I was stitching and did not pay enough attention. It was a lovely evening though.

The pattern is correct :)

Pattern #14

Here is the chart and stitched sample for pattern #14. I really, really like this one and can't help but think it would make a very nice trim.




















It stitched up so nicely and the pattern lends itself to a very tidy back. A little more effort on my part and the back could have been even tidier.



















When I finished the trellis, I realized that this pattern would work really well as an Opus Tutonicum / German white work piece. Both techniques share designs and charts, so its legit to use as such. I took a picture of the back to show that it could be a very tidy back for something like napkins or a tablecloth. The stray cross-over threads on the back could very easily have been avoided and then the back would look remarkably like the front. It would prevent any "see through" on a loose weave linen as well.

Pontification

This has been mentioned on another blog that I follow, but I thought that I'd second the notion. Please enjoy the charts and make pretty stuff with them. I'm putting them out there for people to use and I enjoy the thought that somebody else might enjoy them.

Also, there's probably going to be a little overlap between me and other folks charting the same genre of stitching. That's just fine with me :) Some of it is a delay between charting, stitching, and posting. Some of it is loosing track of who has done what. I'm not going to get my feathers ruffled over it and I hope that others feel the same. I will compile the patterns in a pdf for easy download at some point in the near future, maybe when I hit the 15 mark.

I debate whether patterns are too similar to chart again and have really followed my whimsy on it. Part of it is whether or not I want to use the pattern. I've got some color pictures now and was thinking of stitching some samples from those, so I'm probably going to chart some stuff that is similar just so that it matches what I'm going to put together. The little w's from pattern 13 are very similar to other little w's I've done, but the interlock differently and that piqued my interest. Whimsy...

Pattern #13

Another pattern finished! This one is from a smaller critter of the borders of one of the tapestries in shown in plate 272. I've seen several examples of this pattern, both up and down "w", and in a few of them the direction of the little "w"s vary kind of randomly. So have fun with it, up, down, or mixed.

Pattern #12

I finished out stitching my pile of patterns a while back, so I've been charting more in my free time. Now that I have another pile to do I have switched back into stitching mode, so here's the first of the new batch. I seem to have misplaced my note that tells me which plate this is from, so as soon as I find it in my pile of source images, I will let you know. Sorry about that.

Stitched example:


Chart:

As requested, here are some variations on opacity of stitches, for comparison. Also I threw in a few gradients just for fun. My goal is to make pretty, readable charts :)

Swatch with 50% opacity:

Swatch with 60% opacity:

Swatch with70% opacity:






Swatch with 80% opacity:

Swatch with 90% opacity:






Swatch with side gradient at 90% opacity:

Swatch with radial gradient at 80% opacity:

Swatch with radial gradient at 90% opacity

New pattern template

Kathy has inspired me to make a nice pattern template for publishing the charts. I spent some time fiddling with Inkscape (a free software package similar to Illustrator) and came up with this. Here is a reprint of of the new, improved, pretty Pattern #1. I'm still tweaking it a little, so feedback is welcome.

Pattern #11

Pattern #11 is finally finished! Its another pattern charted from plate 333.


Stitched example:


















Pattern:

Pattern #10

This pattern is also taken from Plate 333 (see pattern #9)

Stitched example:


Pattern:

Pattern #9

I finished stitching the next pattern. This is the most simple pattern visually, but it seemed like it was the hardest to stitch. Also, use the pattern not the example since there are a couple of small errors in the stitching on this one.

Stitched Example:


Pattern:


I charted this pattern from Plate 333 in the Kroos book. I've got a few more patterns from this panel to stitch up.

Pattern #8

** Pictures of design upside down :)

Stitched sample:


Charted pattern:


I charted this from panel found in plate 334 from the Kroos book. I'm going to keep working on charts from this particular piece (whole tapestries shown in plates 328 and 329) for a while. I'm going to skip the swastika designs though, for obvious reasons. Their modern context outweighs their historical interest for me.

Pattern #7

This pattern is from the same tapestry as the previous. I charted it from a close up picture of one of the panels in Lady Sabine Berard's web page at Silverdragon.org

Stitched sample:


Pattern:

Pattern #6

This pattern is from plate 330 (see the post from pattern 5)

Stitched sample:


Pattern:

Pattern #5

Pattern chart:


Stitched sample:


The source panel is plate 330 in the Roos book. I have a couple other patterns from this plate charted but not stitched. Hopefully I'll get those done sometime soon.

Pattern #4

Here is my fourth sample. The pattern is a little different from some of the previous because it's horizontal stripes.

Stitching:


Pattern:


And the source for this pattern is Plate 201 from the Kroos book. The pattern is used for fill for a camel. For those reading at home, the catalogue number is 117 on page 154 and camel is Dromedar in German. The piece is listed at 14th century.

Source:

Pattern #3

Pattern #2

Pattern #2: