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Spendsloads
26-07-2015, 01:34 PM
I was at another Royal School of Needlework day class earlier this month. It was Introduction to Jacobean embroidery this time. My completed piece is below. What was particularly exciting this time was that the previous two classes I had been to had been on Sundays, so there weren't many people around. This time I took a mid-week class and we got to see some of the degree and diploma students at work and were also in a classroom that had some beautiful completed work hanging up by the students - it was very inspiring.

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clumsycrafter
26-07-2015, 01:35 PM
That is really beautiful - I would never have the patience to do that!

jube
26-07-2015, 02:21 PM
Such delicate work. It reminds me of my grandma's cushions, and brought back so many happy memory's. Thank you for sharing.

RozMinis
26-07-2015, 02:32 PM
Gorgeous work, you should be very proud of yourself.

Tiz many a long year since I did that sort of thing. Was going to have a go last year, found the book, but the transfer was missing. :(

Roz

Waterlily
26-07-2015, 03:13 PM
That's beautiful. well done Spends.

pyjama princess
26-07-2015, 03:20 PM
Another stunning piece of work. We're very lucky on this forum to have members who enjoy crafts other than papercrafting. It's great to see all your beautiful finished pieces - keep sharing them please peeps.

Little Jan
26-07-2015, 04:23 PM
That is beautiful
Wish I could still do needlework

Jacksmissis
26-07-2015, 05:29 PM
Beautiful Spends, is it very different to do as against conventional embroidery? It looks like fine machining - I mean that as a compliment not rudeness !

Jilly
26-07-2015, 05:56 PM
Absolutely lovely. I went back to trying embroidery earlier this year. Managed to finally understand why I have had so many problems understanding how to do the stitches. I'm left handed and all the books show you needle positions for the right handed person!They tell you to place a mirror against the edge of a normal book to reverse the pictures but I found that too much of a pain. I finally managed to get a book by an Australian author for left handed people. Brilliant book. I'm now slowly doing easy projects to work myself up to something worthwhile. I've done xstitch since the 1990's but so nice to do something a little different. It all started in April when I had been tempted to sign up for a Royal School of Needlework that was being advertised locally but soon learnt that it would be doubly difficult for me without learning the basics in my left handed way. Hoping I may be able to go to a class further on down the line! Maybe one day I can produce something as lovely as yours Spendsloads.

Victoria
26-07-2015, 05:57 PM
Another stunning piece of work. We're very lucky on this forum to have members who enjoy crafts other than papercrafting. It's great to see all your beautiful finished pieces - keep sharing them please peeps.

I quite agree. Does make a change.

I think Spends you should apply for the craft council thingy.

RozMinis
26-07-2015, 06:45 PM
I quite agree. Does make a change.

I think Spends you should apply for the craft council thingy.

I'll second that. ;)

Roz

glynisrose
26-07-2015, 09:32 PM
I used to love embroidery but I can't do it any more because of arthritic hands....

Chalet School Fan
27-07-2015, 09:48 AM
A beautiful piece of work - thank you for sharing.

Years ago, when I was still living in London, I did a year's evening course at the RSN when it was in South Kensington studying church embroidery and gold work. It was great to have access to their equipment, like supports for a slate frame. Wish I had the time to do things like that now - and that local authorities could still subsidise those kind of adult education classes! At the weekend I met a woman on the Little Claire's workshop who was having half the cost of the day paid for by her employer. The company she works for allow all their employees £100 a year to spend on non- work related courses to ensure a healthy life/work balance. I was amazed there are such enlightened employers in our penny pinching age!

Spendsloads
28-07-2015, 07:56 AM
Thank you so much for your lovely comments.

The piece we worked on during the course didn't take very long at all to complete - in fact I finished mine on the day, with time to spare to re-work my French knots which were too loose first time round. Traditional embroidery seems much faster than cross stitch - I suppose because you don't have to cover as much of the fabric.

There were a couple of left handed people on the course and the tutor was really good at showing them how to adapt their technique.

CSF, I remember you posting before that you had been on the church embroidery course - how lovely. I was talking to the tutor about the Certificate/Diploma course and the Certificate is something I would be very interested in doing - it's four modules - silk shading, Jacobean, goldwork and either blackwork or canvas work consisting of four days teaching each and obviously working on the test piece in your own time and you can do one module at a time and the Diploma is twice that. The only thing is, it looks like we are moving overseas towards the end of this year, so Hampton Court won't be quite so handily on the doorstep!

Chalet School Fan
28-07-2015, 11:05 AM
That sounds a great course to do - I'll put it on my list for a retirement activity when, hopefully, I'll have the time and energy to do some 'proper' embroidery. I found that I needed to work in daylight to get the colours right when I was silk shading and I rarely see much of that out of working hours, excapt in summer.

Perhaps you could time trips back to the UK to coincide with the RSN modules and work on the diploma that way.

RozMinis
28-07-2015, 07:13 PM
Have you tried a daylight lamp CSF? I can't live without mine. I have three of them, plus a teeny one that can clip to anything, so take that on holiday with me. Hmmm, come to think of it I have a fourth, which is the same as the one in my office, but is stored away in the cupboard as it was bought when I was having problems with one of the others.

I would have loved to have done the RSN degree course, the trouble is I couldn't stand the thought of living in London to do it. I wasn't that keen on London when I lived there, but would definitely hate it now.

Roz

Muffintop
31-07-2015, 01:13 PM
Absolutely lovely. I went back to trying embroidery earlier this year. Managed to finally understand why I have had so many problems understanding how to do the stitches. I'm left handed and all the books show you needle positions for the right handed person!They tell you to place a mirror against the edge of a normal book to reverse the pictures but I found that too much of a pain. I finally managed to get a book by an Australian author for left handed people. Brilliant book. I'm now slowly doing easy projects to work myself up to something worthwhile. I've done xstitch since the 1990's but so nice to do something a little different. It all started in April when I had been tempted to sign up for a Royal School of Needlework that was being advertised locally but soon learnt that it would be doubly difficult for me without learning the basics in my left handed way. Hoping I may be able to go to a class further on down the line! Maybe one day I can produce something as lovely as yours Spendsloads.

Hi Jilly, like you I am left-handed and find it all difficult. I tried the mirror thing and it was a royal PIA! Now, just find my own way around things as there are very few dedicated leftie crochet/knitting books. I read recently about a crochet/knitting designer who was left-handed and said she always finds it really difficult learning from books and the internet due to her leftieness and it takes her a long time to figure things out. I was quite happy to read that.

Victoria
01-08-2015, 01:09 PM
Another lefty here and I well remember my needlework teacher at school doing her very best to help me. Bless her.

RozMinis
01-08-2015, 07:29 PM
Another lefty here and I well remember my needlework teacher at school doing her very best to help me. Bless her.

Sounds like the lady we had at school. If you were interested, then she would go that extra mile to help. I have known many teachers, parents too, who would force children to use their right hand.

I am a natural right hander, but some things I have had to do left handed for many years. Over the last three years and eleven months I have had to use my mouse left handed. Can't use it right handed at all now.

Roz

Jacksmissis
01-08-2015, 08:07 PM
My old Mum was left handed too and the teachers used to smack them in those days with rulers or books, thank heavens things have moved on now.

Chalet School Fan
01-08-2015, 08:36 PM
When my brother was in the infants he picked up a pencil with his left hand and his teacher (a strange woman) assumed he was left handed and forced home to write that way. He has always had problems with writing as a result.
My son is left handed for writing, but right handed for everything else! We didn't even notice he wrote left handed until the school pointed it out to us! I had a long labour with him and I have often wondered if it was a sign of some minor brain damage as he isn't really a leftie.

Jilly
01-08-2015, 11:30 PM
I write left handed and as mentioned before sewing - but I iron right handed and knit right handed - don't class myself as having any minor brain damage - lol - others might think differently!! Just class myself as being fortunate in being reasonably ambidextrous. Both my daughters are left handed but son is right handed. Just the luck of the draw - and as I've always said 'left is best'!!

Chalet School Fan
02-08-2015, 06:50 AM
I wouldn't say my son is ambidextrous - he's right handed except for writing. It seemed odd to me, until I came across an article which suggested that it could be a result of minor damage at birth. In his case that made sense, but I don't know if that is true - it just gave me a reasonable answer to a question that puzzled me. It has never been an issue and didn't hold him back academically or in any other way.

Chalet School Fan
02-08-2015, 06:55 AM
P.S. To get back on topic - when I taught him to sew and do cross stitch for a Cub badge he automatically did it right handed.

Jilly
02-08-2015, 10:05 AM
P.S. To get back on topic - when I taught him to sew and do cross stitch for a Cub badge he automatically did it right handed.

Very interesting. I must remember to ask my two girls if they do anything right handed now as adults. As they both live the other side of the world I can't honestly say I've witnessed them doing other things - neither believe in the word 'ironing' - don't know where they get that from as totally off topic I hate clean crumbled bed sheets - have to iron them - but I'm not one to iron everything I hasten to add. My daughter in law used to iron the pants!! Not any longer though!

Spendsloads
03-08-2015, 08:01 AM
My Dad used to write with his right hand but used his left hand for everything else and my sister is the reverse - she writes with her left hand but sews, plays tennis and irons with her right hand. I have no idea how my Dad was born, but I do remember my mum telling me she was in labour with my sister for some time. If they had any damage at birth, it certainly didn't affect them in later life. My Dad was incredible intelligent and as my sister has first class degree in mechanical engineering, she's pretty bright too. My sister's son also seems to have the same trait - he's four and learning to write and - it looks like it's going to be his right hand, with a preference to use his left for everything else. I do know that my sister had a relatively straightforward labour with him, taking around 7 hours.

I think there might be something genetic in it - my Dad, sister and nephew are so clearly related to each other both in looks and in personality, though as I am definitely right-handed and my mother (who I take after) was just as definitely left-handed, I'm not sure that theory quite works!

By the way, at the RSN courses I've been to, there's always been some lefties in the class and the tutors seem very experienced at showing them what to do.