May 2024 Twining
|
Scroll & Diamonds
This month's motifs were inspired by designs on bonnets from ancient Egypt. Featured is the diamond design which appears on the surface, and then those contrasting colored threads disappear. Where do they go? They go to the back side of the cloth. Interesting results happen once you learn to hide threads on the back side of the cloth. We introduce two concepts: working stitches at the back (atb) and the cover stitches (stitches which sit infront of those stitches-at-the-back. The tutorial for Motif A shows you how to move the threads to the back, and how to bring them back to the surface. Another trick that is sometimes important is what Carol calls the Re-Set row. Carol uses it to help you to re-arrange the order of the threads to facilitate the next row of the pattern. Below you see two sides of the same sample, front and back. The yellow threads hide on the back side of the cloth. These are the samples from the instruction sheets for Motif A. There is a video that goes with these instructions. Once you've mastered that technique, several variations are possible. |
May Motif D,
front face
|
May Motif D,
back side
|
Front side of the sample
|
Back side of the sample
|
Motif A
Here are the instructions to make the sample at the left. This is the basic idea behind this month's motifs ... contrasting coloured threads moving to the back side, while another stitch covers them. The video shows you how this works.
| ||||||
|
Motif B
This is a series of diamonds, wandering to the right, and then wandering to the left. These diamonds are smaller than the ones in the tutorial above ... another option. Now about the threads at the back, there is no specific required location for them, there are options … depending on your fingers. As the person writing the charts and patterns, I have to locate these threads somewhere … but that does not have to dictate the way you work. Below you will find motif B1 and motif B2. They are both instructions for the piece in the image to the left. The difference between the two versions has to do with the manner in which I have you handling the contrasting-coloured threads at the back, the location of the threads at the back .... the difference begins on row 26. You are invited to compare-and-contrast these two versions of the motif, and decide which you prefer.
| ||||||||||||
|
Motif C
Back in February we played with the motif Carol calls Rail Road Tracks. That was an inaccurate attempt to recreate a motif that Carol saw in a bonnet in the Petri Museum. This is a far more accurate version.
| ||||||
|
| ||||||||
Detail of bonnet
catalogue number 10320
Kelsey Museum, Ann Arbor Michigan.
The Scroll & Diamond motif appears along the selvedge of the cloth, where S-side and Z-side are sewn together.