Black Ops Can Be Fun....

No, Tessie didn't put a hit out on Zar. She just found an old copy of Fancywork Magazine whilst moving books this morning.

That's the fun part of cleaning out. I keep finding things that I had forgotten about.

This particular magazine had an article on blackwork embroidery. It is very beautiful and extremely easy to do. If you can count threads and run a needle in and out in a straight line, you can do it.

That's probably why it was so popular in the Elizabethan age. You see it in lots of the portraits from way back then, on clothing.

Tessie announced that we were going to cease sorting immediately and make her a coverlet to go over the end of the black and white bed.

She sat down on the page and refused to move until I agreed to do it. What could I do? I stopped sorting and dug up some white, even weave fabric.

To do it in mini, it looks best on # 28 or higher count. I am working over two threads on a 32 count. It kind of fools the eye. It is large for scale, but looks delicate, thus not out of scale.


I cut a piece a little over seven inches square and just started in one corner. If you are doing it for the first time, I wouldn't advise this. Mathematics are involved.

I used the main stitches that run through the middle of the design to lay out the border. It was one short stitch over two threads, one under, one long stitch over four threads , one short stitch of two threads under. I just kept going until I had all four sides laid out evenly.

Tessie started working the design on one side and I started on the other. It is basically done with a running stitch, over two threads and under two. Then you go around again and fill in the ones that are not covered with a second pass. The one on the left is finished and the one on the right, Tessie is going around for the second time.

Rather than show you, I will send you to one of the best pages on the net to learn and to get patterns. It is for full size, but can easily be adapted to mini. http://www.prettyimpressivestuff.com/blackwork.htm It includes links to other sites with more info and patterns.

Now, if you pull back, you can see where I was working....It is a little easier for me to do it than Tessie.

I haven't decided if I am going to fill the whole coverlet with the design or just the edges with a border of two or three rows. After all, it is going to be folded at the foot of the bed. What difference doe the center make???

I have to go do a lot more running(stitches).

See you tomorrow.