Altar frontal patchwork for Ipdsen Church, Oxon: revised honeysuckle star
Rejected star patchwork pieces with hand embroidered flowers
Anyone following the progress of the altar frontal may have noticed that all the recently embroidered flowers have a black background. This wasn’t always the case as to begin with I embroidered most on a cream ground and one on very lightly patterned ground, intending to also use various other different backgrounds. Gradually I begin to realise that the heightened contrast of a black ground works much better than a random assortment of different colours. After that I put the flowers not on black to one side and tried not to think about them for a while.
Star patch with hand embroidered honeysuckle (Mary Addison)
Then one day, as often happens when you’ve put off making a decision you know you’ve got to make, I just knew the black background was right and that now I had to get on with making duplicate flowers. I could have chosen to make different flowers but to leave out such lovely English countryside flowers as the honeysuckle, field poppy and the more domesticated lily would have been a shame. It struck me that the ones previously done need not be lost and could be made into something small like a pulpit fall, but I’ll think more about that later.
Patchwork stars with hand embroidered honeysuckle – old and new (Mary Addison)
This week I began by replacing the honeysuckle, the field poppy and the sunflower. I think I was on a bit of a roll because things went smoothly and I felt that each one looked better than the ones I’d done previously. In the case of the honeysuckle the colours stand out really well -which is doubly pleasing because I limited myself to the ends of skeins now wrapped numberless around those useful little plastic cards.
A pretty mess – ends of skeins embroidery cottons
I often use black as a background for needlework but find myself slightly anxious when using it in a communal project that not everybody feels the same. As the person in charge of design you do have to agree with others in general terms but reserve the right to forge on when you feel a design is working. At this point it’s often helpful to look around for other examples where something similar has worked successfully and I can think of no better examples to refer back to than Mrs Delany’s fabulous embroidery and famous paper cuts. Then last week I found a hard back copy (in beautiful condition) of Molly Peacock’s book The Paper Garden: Mrs Delaney (Begins her life’s work) at 72 in a local charity shop and I was overjoyed.
Of the book Victoria Glendinning says: “Peacock has structured the whole book as metaphor, a collage about a collage and a meditation on sexuality, friendship and creativity. It both analyses and exemplifies that obsessional, mesmerised state induced in artists and crafts people through concentration and close observation. The volume itself is a craft object, sumptuously presented and designed…” I’ve had a brief skim through and got sucked in immediately.
Molly Peacock: The Paper Garden. Mrs Delany (begins her life’s work) at 72 (Bloomsbury 2010)
More flowers and more of Mrs Delaney soon.
Hand embroidered patchwork stars. Off with the old, on with the new
10 Comments
The flowers look GREAT on black, an much as I like them on light backgrounds, I do think they stand out better this way. I will have to look up Mrs Delaney – look forward to hearing more about her!
Thanks for being so positive about the black background.
Mrs Delaney is fascinating enough but her biographers are pretty interesting too. Some people find Molly Peacock’s autobiographical elements too much – and that includes the woman in Oxfam who sold me the book – I suspect it had been her donation. Haven’t read that far yet.
I love the idea of adding embroidery to Hexigans as you have been doing and think that you have made such lovely and creative examples. The flowers look stunning on black.
It’s good to have your agreement, Marianne. Thank you.
I too love how your embroidery glows against the dark background. Until today I had never heard of Mrs Delaney and now I will look out for the book you mention – how wonderful that the lady was able to find and succeed at what you love in the later years of her life……
Thanks for your encouragement. Mrs Delany is fascinating – there is another book about her that I must get. More on the books later.
I would always have thought of cream for a background, but when I see the beautiful embroidered flowers against the black, there is no comparison! You are so patient to go back and re-do previous embroideries Mary. Absolutely gorgeous. I have never heard of Mrs Delaney either; the wonderful world of blogging strikes again! Another recommendation I am now intrigued to follow-up. X
Thanks for your perspective re cream v. black. You know yourself when something works but it is good to hear the opinion of someone like yourself who might have opted for the cream but has been persuaded by the black – having such another bonus of the wonderful world of blogging Thank you. The book on Mrs Delany I mentioned is a bit quirky (I think it was a bit too quirky for the lady in Oxfam) as it’s a biography about the biographer and Mrs D’s previous biographer as much as Mrs D, – I certainly enjoyed the bit I read about the latter…
Hi Mary. The black backgrounds look great and made me think of Mrs Delaney. I suppose flowers are supposed to be viewed against green foliage or with other flowers or against the sky – whether blue or grey so why not black? It makes more sense than white or cream, but I hadn’t thought of it before and your pictures of the honeysuckle really show how well the black works. Thanks for sharing. Bx
Hello Rebecca, it’s lovely to hear from you and I’m glad you like the black background. In my mind I keep going back to the two antique quilts shown towards the end of the post here http://www.addisonembroideryatthevicarage.co.uk/2013/05/12/altar-frontal-a-village-project/ – I love the bold use of black in both and the strength of the yellow in the first one.
Thanks for commenting. Hope life in Bradford on Avon is good.