A Victorian Sampler

I have had the most fantastic day!!! We have been doing hand embroidery in the studio and I had an hours smugness watching my fellow students struggle with the art of bullion knots, french knots, chain stitch, couching etc
I have been working on a sampler of all these stitches (makes me think of young Victorian ladies sitting in their morning rooms working on their stitching) so just playing around with position, techniques etc- here is what I have so far...

 

 Here of course we have the couching, with some french knots, bullion knots, seed stitch and chain stitch visible.

 

 French and bullion knots..

 

And then I learnt how to make my own cord!! Very exciting! This cord is made from 4 different coloured embroidery threads- which have to be the same length and about 4 times as long as your required length of cord. Fold the threads in half and tie the loose ends together. Either loop or stick the tied end to something (I made Lucy hold on to mine) and then using a pencil at the looped end, start twisting the threads until it starts to curl up on itself.
Put the looped end and the tied end together, making sure to hold the middle (you may need an extra pair of hands for that bit) and it should naturally twist itself together in a cord-like yarn- tie off the loose ends to hold it all together.
You can experiment with colours, weights of yarn, type of threads used etc....Lucy got so excited we had to make another one just for her!