Post 345 Mostly getting organised

 

Cleaning this morning - for a short while there are no threads on the carpet, or chairs.

It was the first Junior Embroiderers meeting of the year, but Niamh had for not put it in her diary and had arranged to catch up with a friend from last year. That left me with an unexpected whole day free, so I decided to use it to do some preparation for the workshop I've committed to give to the Guild's Certificate Course as well as constructing the bag with the Western Spinebill.

I used as lining a piece of snake fabric I bought from Aboriginal Fabrics in Alice Springs a while back.  

I used it for the sides as well as the lining. 

I think it blends well with the spinebill, and works well in a pocket on the reverse side.

Once again, I haven't ironed it yet. I figure I'll do that when I'm ready to enter it into the Guild Exhibition. It's only going to need to be done again then anyway.

I read all the books I have on Bulgarian Embroidery and made notes on each of them. I need to get some background context before I start to examine the collection that Nelly has lent me. So far the most interesting bits relate to the layers of historic migrations and the persistence of symbols and beliefs from pre-Christian times.  

This symbol, for example, according to Daniel Montiglio, is a Katanitza, an ancient symbol of family strength, harmony and balance.

From there I returned to my Icelandic Embroidery workshop and reread Elsa Gudjonsson's Traditional Icelandic Embroidery.   I modified the PowerPoint a little and played around with some examples of designs from old Icelandic embroideries that I might be able to use for students to work in the original stitches.

I ran my printer's cleaning program which restored it to print. This enabled me to enlarge a couple of the examples in the book and trace out the shapes. I think these will provide enough for students to get the idea. They can use these, or components of them, or design their own.

I now need to diagram the stitches and put it all together into a set of notes. 

Yesterday I contacted the Adelaide City Libraries, to see if they could obtain a digital copy of Margrethe Hald's book Ancient Danish Textiles in Bogs and Burials  for me from Flinders University Library, which holds a hard copy.  After much transferring of phones and emails, they told me they do not have an arrangement with Flinders. It looks as if I will need to contact Flinders directly and hope they will deal with a non-member of the University.  I want this for the session I have promised to take on Viking embroidery for the World Embroidery Study Group, but it would also be useful for Icelandic Embroidery. I'll follow up on Monday.

I'm pleased, however, with the progress I made today. I'm beginning to feel a little organised.

Anthony barbecued pork chops, meat patties and sausages tonight along with roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broccoli. I caught up with the netball news and a lot more. Fionn has football assessments tomorrow.

Katherine is making progress on her Adagio Mills shawl and I now have 5 pale blue circles to work with. 

Progress.