New! Pattern #21 in progress

Has it really been two years since I last published a pattern? I guess so! Well, here it is: Pattern #21 in brick stitch. The pattern is based on a medieval tile roof from Burgundy as shown in the book I featured in my last post. It is technically not document-ably German in origin, but it is in the same style and it is a beautiful pattern. I tried to replicate the original colors, but I think it would look beautiful in a number of color combinations.

I am using three strands of Au Ver au Soie silk on 30 count (?I think) linen even weave. My plan is to make a purse that will have one side with this pattern and the other side with a different pattern (the planned Pattern #22), both from the same book of Burgundian roofs. There are extant examples of purses with different patterns on the two sides, although not to my knowledge are there purses with two geometric patterns; the examples I know of are pictorial. However, since the pattern based on roof tiles is purely speculative I don't believe it is too much of a stretch to make a purse with two different patterns. Plausibly it could be a purse made of two older embroideries cut down/repurposed as is demonstrated in other examples.

In this photo I show the embroidery completed in stages: the blue outline that defines the shapes, the patterns within the blue borders, and the completely finished areas of embroidery. I purposely did the embroidery this way in order to photograph it to show you the progress of my work process. Also hopefully it will stimulate your imagination for other suitable color combinations.

Look for the charted pattern at a later time when I have finished more of the embroidery. Thanks to all of you who follow my blog; I realize I have been remiss in publishing for some time and hope to be more active in the future.

Brick Stitch Pattern #20

It's been too long since I made a new pattern! This pattern is my 20th, bringing me 40% of the way to my goal of 50 patterns for the A&S 50 Challenge.

Once again, the source of the pattern is a German religious wall hanging. This one is dated to both 1290/1300 and the mid 14th century. Here is the detail I used:



Since the photo is black and white and I have never seen the original I have to invent the colors. I played with using a different number of colors. Maybe you can get an idea of a way to put them together with other patterns (the way the three colored motifs are stitched together below is a hint)?

Brick stitch cushion

Stymied by my long wait for the yellow thread I ordered to finish my embroidered box project, I decided to start something else. I am getting quite a collection of brick stitched articles, but they are all purses, needle books or needle rolls. They are also all silk and must be cared for carefully. Therefore I am going in a different direction and making something designed for harder use, which is why I chose wool for my thread. It is a cushion designed to be placed on my new bench.

For the pattern I am not copying one specific extant piece, rather I am using elements from various pieces.

Needle roll from Pattern #8

I'd like to teach another brick stitch class, and to that end am planning on stitching more of the patterns I made. Eventually I would like to have examples of all of them. This little pattern was easy to stitch and the needle roll is small and quick to make.

The finished size is 3 inches long and 2 1/4 inches high. The embroidery took between 5 and 6 hours, with another 2 or 3 hours to weave the cord and sew everything together. Materials were 28 count linen, and single strand Aurora Silk in undyed (white), indigo, and cochineal (purple) dyed by my friend Renee of Solar Colors and a green of a similar silk thread from the store.

As much as I liked making this, I can only have so many needle rolls. Some of the other patterns will be made into purses and other things.

oak bench put together but unfinished

Finally! On my very last shop day of the year I managed to finish building my white oak bench. All that is left to do is finish it. I doesn't look much different from the first picture I posted, does it? I assure you that in person there is a great difference!!

My goal in making furniture is to make stuff that can take abuse, where dings and scratches are "character" instead of damage. The way we live in my house, furniture needs to be that way. That means I don't want to put a dark finish on it that will show bare wood if it gets a deep scratch. I am considering fuming it with ammonia in the way that some original Arts and Crafts furniture was made. The original Arts and Crafts era crafters fumed with ammonia to create the aged look they so admired in ancient furniture. If it makes the wood dark enough I won't have to stain it at all. First I am going to experiment with some of the scrap pieces left over from making this bench. If I like the results I'll use the process on the bench. If fuming doesn't turn out well then I'll use a more conventional stain, just not too dark. Either way I hope to have the results posted here next month.

I'll be starting on another piece of furniture next month, something for my living room. I've been planning all along to build all new furniture for my living room but only now am I getting started. This month I am giving away virtually all the wood furniture in my living room; I think it will motivate me to work on my long-delayed furniture projects.

LESSONS LEARNED from this project: Make every cut, every step of a project as perfectly as possible. It saves so much time/effort/frustration as you progress. I made many mistakes with the first bench I made that I spent a lot of time fixing towards the end of the process; I didn't do as much of that this time and it was so much better that way!!!

Pattern #7 and some comment responses

There were some interesting comments on my last post. Here are the comments and my responses:

From Laura Kathleen:
"This pattern definitely caught my eye, as I charted the same motif while charting Russian patterns from towel ends. I wrote about it on my blog here.

I wish I knew enough about the history of the two styles to connect them, though it may just be a coincidence from working with geometric patterns."

Laura Kathleen - yes, your Russian pattern #7 and my German pattern #7 are identical, except for the stitches used. Coincidences abound...

From Elina (and I really enjoy your blog):
"What a lovely pattern, that no 7. I tried looking for the instructions on the blog, but for some odd reason couldn't find it, altough I found patterns #6 and #8. Could you please point me in the right direction?"

Elina - sorry, I haven't posted #7 yet. I'm about to correct that.

From Krista:
"That is interesting - it's like the one in Wymarc, only smaller. Very cute! Doing these in one color is fun, but be prepared for 1) getting sick of the color and 2) having people not notice the embroidery."

Krista - both true statements. As for the pattern being like Wymarc #4, it is true that they are very similar. If you look at lots and lots of these embroideries you'll see the same or similar patterns over and over again. What I like about that is that I feel like I can vary the colors or I could vary the pattern and it would still be plausible for the period. I feel like it gives me some freedom if I should ever wish to make a period plausible pattern instead of trying for reproductions. It also allows some freedom in color choices.

I was holding back on publishing Pattern #7 but I think I might as well post it. It was the most challenging to create so far; it is more complicated than many of the other patterns and the source photo was a challenge as well. I am using this pattern for the front and back panels of my reliquary box (one is shown almost finished in the photo above).

Crafty Challenge #1 received

This is my first finished Crafty Challenge project. I was just waiting for Eleanor Deyeson to let me know she received her gift before I posted pictures (didn't want to ruin the surprise!). Here it is, a needlebook embroidered with naturally dyed silk and wool pages and lining, plus a little pocket on the inside. The pattern is my Brick Stitch Pattern #13, which I charted months ago but have been waiting to post until I actually used it to make something. It is one of my favorites! I'd love to see this in orange and green as well, maybe another time.

The ground fabric is 32 count linen embroidered with a single strand of silk.





On a side note, I think I will post some pictures of the non-medieval crafting I've been doing lately. That's where my efforts have been lately, and I feel badly about letting so much time go by in between posts.

Brick stitch pattern #19

Since it's been a while since I posted a new pattern, here one is. The source is a hanging from Isenhagen, dated to the 14th century (Kroos, item #66). The full size of the hanging is 120 cm high by 315 cm wide. I don't know the original colors, but it appears that white stitches were on a natural linen colored background, and some of the linen was left unstitched. In the pattern on the left, I indicated the unstitched areas with a beige color. In the pattern on the right I used colors that are period appropriate but not known to have ever been used together in this pattern; I just thought it looked pretty and wanted to provide an alternative to the white. This pattern was used in the original embroidery to fill the halo of a winged bull.

Reliquary box, third panel finished

I will have to make a total of six panels for the embroidery covered box I am making, and here is number three. It is for one of the sides, and the two sides are identical. Did I really last post about it nearly a month ago? It almost felt like I just started it.

Now I think I will take a little break and make something fun. Meanwhile, in addition to my medieval-focused arts and crafts, I continue to work on my cartoneria and that is what is sucking up much of my time. That has to be my main focus since I have a deadline.

New skill - turning wood

Last weekend I took a class on wood turning and made this bowl and mallet in class. I've long admired turned objects and thought that some turned wood items would help with my medieval kit. Of course, the use of modern lathes powered by electricity and modern tools made of high speed steel is not very medieval but I prefer them to their period counterparts. I will hopefully have access to a lathe next month so I can try out some more turning. It was easier than I thought, although the inside of the bowl was difficult, and it was also fun.

The wood I used was black acacia that was gathered by the class instructor a couple of weeks ago when the city cut down a tree across from the shop (how fortuitous!). There is nice variation of color between the heart wood and the sap wood that looks very striking.

What I'm working on now

Much of my spare crafting time these days is occupied by cartoneria, or Mexican paper sculpture (paper mache). I am taking a class to learn to make sculptures and working in my free time on what will be (I hope) an elaborate Halloween display. The only hope I have of success in this endeavor, given how elaborate I would like it to be, is to start now and work on it constantly.

This means I have less time for needlework. However, I continue to plug away on a long term brick stitch project: an embroidery covered reliquary box. I haven't posted about it before because I don't want to show too much until it is further along, but I wouldn't want anyone to think I am not working on anything. Last month I entered my unfinished box in my very first A&S competition in the category of relics and reliquaries. I couldn't stay for the whole A&S so I missed the awards announcements and since I never heard anything I figured I didn't win, but last night I found out that I won! Hooray!!

I am using my brick stitch pattern #14 for the sides of the box. I have finished one side panel, the front panel, and have started the top and second side panels. This is a picture of the second side panel in progress.

If you are intrigued by cartoneria then check out the website of my instructor, Ruben Guzman, at www. cartoneria.com. He has some very nice sculptures.

Brick stitch pattern #18

The information I have about the embroidery in this photo is "German embroidery 1300" so other than that I have no information (that I know of) about the original hanging. It looks like it once had some color but it is badly faded. I chose this pattern because I like interlocking patterns and it is yet another variation on basket weave. The original looks as if the area where this pattern was used was all the same color, probably white, but I show it in a variety of colors to provide alternatives.

Brick stitch pattern #17

With this, my 17th pattern, I am now one third of the way towards my goal of 50 patterns. This pattern is taken from a hanging circa 1290 - mid 1300s showing scenes from the legend of St. Margaret of Antioch. Unfortunately I only have the black and white picture so colors are speculative. The light color is probably white. I had a lot of fun playing with the colors for this pattern, and since so many patterns in embroidery of this period were repeated using different color schemes you could change the colors up a bit and still have a plausibly period color scheme.

One of the disadvantages of making all these patterns is that I do not have time to make examples of all of them, although I hope to someday. This one is definitely in my top five of favorites so far so I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

Below are some of the ways I played with color for this pattern:

Brick stitch pattern #16

This is one of the bigger patterns, and I've always liked it. When I first started embroidering I liked it but didn't think I could ever do it. I haven't yet, but now that I made the pattern I know I could do it.

Photographs of the original can be found here. It is listed as late 13th century Spanish in origin, with woven straps terminating in turk's head knots (as often as turk's head knots show up in these types of purses I really should learn how to make them). The colors look to be light yellow, a deeper gold color, and dark blue or maybe purple? Taschen did a beautiful reproduction of the embroidery which can be seen here, it is really enviable and drool-worthy. He also published a really nice pattern. I made my own using the photograph both for the sake of completeness with my own patterns and as a technical challenge. My pattern is very slightly different, almost unnoticeably so. I'm not completely happy with it but I am tired of looking at it. Check out his pattern to compare.

In the picture I set the pattern on a tiled backround of the same pattern. The original isn't made quite this way, but imperfect photograph and wear obscure the rest of the pattern. I may attempt it another time.

Cardweaving set up with household items

The complete setup, ready to start. I would have liked smaller clamps but those were the smallest I could find in the garage.

My setup is a bit crude as I just went into the garage and scrounged around. I attached the clamps to a board so it would be portable (note to self - try to find a piece of lumber that isn't so rough and splintery for next time).


Part of the first finished weaving as well as the start of the weave. My beater is a knife from the kitchen drawer (using the blunt side, of course)


I have a little arrow drawn on a piece of paper. I use that to remind myself which direction to turn the cards if I have to leave the weaving for a while.


Gradually, I am acquiring items to make a complete medieval outfit. Now that I have shoes I need hose and garters.

I learned a bit about cardweaving last year, made a few experiments and then dropped it and moved on to other things. Last time I did the weaving using an inkle loom I made in woodshop. This time I decided to try the method of using C-clamps.

MATERIALS: Spun silk 2-ply from Aurorasilk in undyed and dyed with Brazilwood by Renee of Solar Colors. I used 12 cards with about 4 meters per card, totaling 48 meters of silk for the warp plus the undyed thread I used for the weft which was not more than a couple of meters. The finished length of the weaving is about 55cm (21.5 inches).

It's barely long enough to make a garter, something to remember if I do this again. Overall I am pleased with the evenness of the weaving and very happy to have another item for my outfit (as soon as I get buckles).

Lessons learned: Remember that there will be a lot of waste silk on either end. I should have made the warp longer. Also I needed a longer board.

Brick stitch pattern #15

This is another pattern from the embroidered hanging at the Cloisters. The original is yellow and white like my pattern but where I used green the original has an unknown color that faded to a nasty brownish color.

I want to keep knocking out patterns as the mood strikes me. At 15 patterns I am now almost 1/3 of the way towards my goal of 50 patterns. When I decided to do 50 patterns I felt like I was making an insane commitment but now it feels more manageable.

Every once in a while I make incremental progress on learning the program that will allow me to make patterns with grid lines. Until then I am doing them this way. Sometime in the future all these patterns will be lovely handouts with background information and gridlines and organized on one website. I will also have a sample item worked in every pattern.

I am stitching away on the next example but feel the need to take a break and do another technique for a while. Klosterstitch seems to be calling my name...

Brick stitch pattern #14

It's been a while since I posted but I have been busy. Here is one thing I've been doing, working on patterns. There are a couple of patterns, #12 and #13, that I haven't posted yet but I did make them. They'll be published later. On this handout I list my website, www.medievalartcraft.com, but it doesn't exist yet except as a domain name. That's coming up as well.

Brick stitch pattern #11

One of the difficulties of making patterns from low resolution pictures, especially black & white pictures, is that some of the patterning is guesswork. The colors are a rough guess as well as some of the stitches. I would love to be able to see better images of most of the known brick stitch embroideries, but I do what I can.

The image above is a comparison of two guesses as to what the pattern is in the B&W photo. I think the one on the right is correct but I am not positive. Anyway, here it is, Pattern #11 (and variation #11a).

Brick stitch pattern #2, different colors

The figure illustrated in the image is from the border of this hanging. I loved how the variation in color gives a striped effect and makes a simple pattern look more complicated.

I put together this picture as a starting point for developing a handout. I would like to teach brick stitch at an event and need something to give to students.

Brick stitch pattern #10, reversed

I flipped pattern #10 to make an "S" instead of a "Z" since both exist among extant embroideries. You could just use the original pattern and flip it in your head, but I find it easier when I have something to look at. I am still busy working on Pattern #7 so I haven't done much else lately.