Creative Embroidery Correspondence Course - Border Patterns

Border pattern   ( February 2015 - Wilma Simmons) 

Was this on my bucket list ?  No,  not really, but after completing Stages 1 & 2 of the Creative Embroidery Correspondence Course with the Embroiderers' Guild about twenty+ years ago, this year I decided to enrol in Stage 3 - finally.  As I want to record what I do, I am sharing each month's exercises with you right here. If you are unfamiliar with these courses, what you get each month is an envelope with instructions, handwritten comments by your assessor and some threads and fabric and then the completed work is returned to the Guild each month for assessment.

February's threads and fabric 

For February's lesson, the theme was inspired by border patterns, emphasising the way stitches turn into patterns when used close together to fill shapes and spaces. Besides the embroidery, there were drawings to do - three border patterns and three square patterns like tiles. I love doing this part, but then to choose one or two,  and  interpret the designs into stitching.... ?

Drawings ( February  2015 -Wilma Simmons) 

To make life easier for myself, I  photocopied  my drawings onto freezer paper and ironed them onto the fabric. I then machine stitched around the lines to provide the "shapes" for stitching... 

Machine stitching the outlines of the shapes 

Work in progress 

Work in progress 2 

Square pattern ( February - Wilma Simmons) 

I used two different approaches ...  The stitching on the square is done within the shapes. With the border pattern, I appliqued some previously  hand painted cotton  and stitched the background in the colour scheme provided with different filling stitches. 

Border pattern exercise ( February 2015 - Wilma Simmons) 

There is nothing better than the feeling of having completed the exercises on time and then getting back the assessor's positive comments!