Coloured Tallies using Magic Threads

Dipping into one of my favourite little bobbin lace books,  Jean Leader's 'Introduction to Bedfordshire Lace',  I treated myself to making the Cluny version of this bookmark.  

To make it different, I added a chevron edge in two different pinks, a spiral feature down the wavy trail in two different greens, and then went for a different variegated thread for each of the leaf tally flowers.  

The 4 pairs of coloured thread on each flower were hidden away using the magic thread method.  This has become my 'go to' method if I don't need to carry the colour to another place.  I wish I had discovered it much earlier!

The video for the Magic Threads is here :- https://youtu.be/Gqo_B--AG8k?si=lxBu97MW5iAyBgix

The video for making a leaf tally is here :- https://youtu.be/Thc-6D7Y1ZE?si=M1_jrkO8Z9U708w1

The variegated threads were a mixture of DMC 50 and old Anchor reels of cotton both makes being much finer than the white thread.  This gave the leaf tallies many more weaves to complete, and I think they benefitted from the finer thread.

Making a Bolster Pillow

I wanted to learn more about making Idrija lace and I needed bolster pillows to make the practice strips and little motifs from the book.  My 'emergency' kitchen roll bolster pillow would not have stood up to much repeated use but had served it's purpose in giving me the idea of what the new pillow shape would be like to use.

Beating the traditional fillings of sawdust or cut up straw tightly into a bolster pillow did not appeal to me, so, I improvised using modern materials. 

I cut a solid foam physiotherapy roller (60cm x 16 cm) in half.  The one I used is solid ethafoam, some are hollow down the center.  A little bag of sand, or stones could be rolled in cloth and placed inside the hollow, making it heavier and less likely to move when tensioning the bobbins.   

 

Video on YouTube here - https://youtu.be/RkanwYrIQAM

A piece of boiled wool blanket, my favourite covering for ethafoam/polystyrene pillows, was cut into a strip a little bit wider than the bolster, enough to go around twice.

The boiled wood blanket is similar to wool felt, but thicker and more robust.  You can boil wash an old wool blanket, but it needs to be thick to start with, not one where you can see the weave easily.  

Pin one edge along the roller, stroke around the roll so it sits tightly, pin on top of the first edge. Repeat and secure with pins.  Cut so the first edge and the last edge lay are on the same line.  Sew along this edge, making sure you catch both the first and last edge in the stitch to keep the tension on the wool.  Remove pins. Trim any excess from the edges.

Measure for Fabric

A.Measure from the centers of both ends.  

B.Circumference of the bolster and add 2-3 cm extra.

Making -

A.Fold along the edges to make a 1cm tube to feed a ribbon through to tension and tie at both ends. 

Wrap the cloth around the bolster with the ribbon tube at each end. Fold one edge over along the length of the bolster and fold the top edge under to make a clean join.  Sew along the join.  

Tension the ribbons, tie a knot or bow, tucking the ends out of the way. 

The basket is a simple household basket which holds two partly emptied microbead 60cm cushions to cuddle the bolster in different positions.  

The Idrija Lace School  

www.cipkarskasola.si

https://www.facebook.com/idrijalaceschool/

Turning a Square Corner and Working Bars - Idrija techniques - Video

Turning a Square Corner and Working Bars

Pattern worked from the book - Idrija Lace - Narrow Cloth Stitch

Using 5 pairs of bobbins, this practice strip was used to experiment with the amount of twists I needed for the interlocking bars between the trails. This is dictated by the thread used and the size of the pattern (not a pricking because Idrija patterns are never pre-pricked). To practice with the thread/pattern size can save a lot of frustration later.

Video here https://youtu.be/t4G3q9GQ26o?si=N079-KPpphMtJnUo

The position of the pin on the bar line is just a teeny bit to the first side worked because, when the other side of the bar is sewed in, the temporary pin is left out and the tension of the joining side pair slightly moves the center of the join. This is why both sides need to have the same number of twists, an unequal number of twists will result in one side being shorter and uneven.

The corner uses fixing stitches ( ctctc ) with the last passive and the worker before the pin. The pillow is turned and a second fixing stitch with the same passive and worker pair is made. Watch your tensions here, it is easy to leave a long loop at the corner if you don't tension all 4 bobbins. The next two passives are worked through (ctc) before the temporary pin is taken out, a sewing made with the worker pair into the hole. The worker is now laid with the passives, and the old worker which has been waiting aside on it's own, becomes the new worker and continues to work the 4 passives, and is used to make more bars further along the band.

I will have to make quite a few more to get comfortable with them, this video shows the experiments to get the right amount of twists and see what tensioning works best for me. It is easy to leave a section of lace, feeling that is is made correctly, according to the book, and not see that it has settled into a different shape due to tensioning further down the lace.

Pattern worked is from the book - Idrija Lace - Narrow Cloth Stitch  

Idrija Lace School website https://www.cipkarskasola.si/?lang=en

Sharp Point in Bobbin Lace + Video

Working through the books by the Idrija Lace School, I made little videos for our group to explain the different techniques.  Many look like they will provide valuable techniques for Muaiga lace making once the practices make them become second nature. 

Sharp points appear in many laces, not always with the neatest ways of making them.  I particularly liked this way of making them because the point, a weak area, became quite solid without being lumpy.  This technique can be adapted to work with more pairs and at different angles (with variations for asymmetrical angles).  Patterns with colour trails may need a bit more experience and some adaptations. 

Video here:-

Sharp points in Bobbin Lace

Pattern worked is from the book - Idrija Lace - Narrow Cloth Stitch

https://www.facebook.com/idrijalaceschool/ Idrija Lace School, 5280 Idrija, Slovenia

Tape Lace Make Do Bobbins

An inexpensive way to try out tape laces using scrap paper to convert an unspangled Midlands bobbin (or skewer).

I am starting to learn Idrija bobbin lace.  This is a Slovenian tape lace. A big change from the usual English and French laces I make, being a tape lace where only 5 or 6 pairs of bobbins are used.  

I thought it would be fun to see if I could convert an abandoned, slim, spangled Midlands bobbin.  The spangles were removed, as they would be a nuisence with all the sewings (feeding one bobbin through the loop made by another) and it was too lightweight for use on a bolster pillow.  

There are many refinements to this idea which would make a more robust bobbin.  I used what I had lying about just to see if a comparable weight and shape could be made with paper.

NOTES

The angles of the strips can be tapered to create a smoother curve.

The paper can be covered in craft glue to make it more mouldable and give more weight.

I used an unspangled bobbin, but you could use skewers with a bead stuck at the end for a head.

A long skewer and wider/longer paper strips would make a larger, heavier bobbin.

Cardstock would be heavier, but paper is more mouldable.

I used Washi tape to cover the paper.  I would suggest a final coat of something that could be sanded smooth to use this for more than a taster of tape lace.

This is just an experiment.  There are many refinements which can be made to create a more long term version.  I used what I had lying about to see if a comparable weight and shape could be made with paper.

Have fun!

Cut an A4, or Letter size sheet of paper into strips 4cm graduating to 1 cm wide

Stick the ends together, keeping the strips in a straight line, 

with the centers of the pieces lined up 

Starting with the widest end, secure the first piece with a dot of glue and wind tightly.  

Keep the narrower strips in the center of the bulb as you go.  

Keep the tension tight.  

You can use a little glue on the paper.

I used a Washi type tape which had a fabric feel to it 

which took well to being smoothed over the paper. 

The paper bulb bobbin weighs the same as the wooden bobbin.  

Beginner parts 2 and 3. Diamond and Spider Video

Continuing the Torchon Sampler, a cloth stitch diamond and a simple spider are added into the practice strip.  The ground (stitches which form the 'background' to the fancy bits)  is still worked as cross, twist, pin, cross twist (ct, pin, ct).

The diamond can be worked in many different ways, using cloth or half stitch, or a combination of both.  The simple spider is the first of many variations, many of which bear no resemblence to spiders, but feature arches, halos, stars, hearts, and more, often featuring fancy stitches to create elaborate designs in larger squares.  They are always made in a square shape with 4 to 16 or more edge pins depending on the design. 

Diamond in Cloth Stitch

Simple Spider 8 legs.

Videos here

 https://youtu.be/OrKwhCOLXJE?si=Op7YXzrh5-pw0vz-

https://youtu.be/ydSDXBL7YvU?si=Un6my8MbbDXp2-s-

Art Nouveau Butterfly Challenge

This design is inspired by a brooch made by Boucheron around 1900. Originally made in enamels, precious and semi precious gems and gold, it has been a favourite of mine for a long time.

This bobbin lace version was created by lacing over a drawing I made with the restrictions of bobbin lace in mind. I sized this design to fit a 28 cm disc block on my block pillow, this allowed for the size of the thread I wanted to use, and the stitches I planned. It only just fitted! From wing tip to end of scroll on one side is 24cm.

I like to use my favourite white Egyptian cotton thread with a wraps per centimeter of 28 for all the first time makings of new designs. This helps me to judge the pinholes and how many bobbins I need to fill spaces.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any gemstones or gold lying about, so I used sequins, beads and sparkly thread.

The stitches I planned on my original drawing had to be changed as I worked through the piece. This can happen if I need to un-lace a section because I am not happy with the result. Pinholes often get moved during this process, and this means that the pricking, when taken off the pillow, is of little use in creating a new pricking to remake the piece because of all the abandoned pinholes.

I worked the antennae first, using the same threads to work down the body, adding sequin eyes, and rows of seed beads down the abdomen. As I worked the sides of the body, I added magic threads around the edge pins, this made it easier to add the wing pairs later. Previously, before I knew about magic threads, I would hang all the bobbins down both sides of butterflies, and work with a pile of waiting bobbins on one side of the pillow!

Once a side is completed, the second side is worked as a mirror image of the first, I can see what stitches to use, and I make little notes for myself on the card about adding twists, pairs, how many passives etc.

This design used several different lace techniques, taken from different styles of lace. It could have been made in simple cloth stitch in different shades to recreate the original more faithfully, but this presented an opportunity to go a little bit over the top.

The old favourites, half and cloth stitch are used of course, a pin under 4 edge for smooth sides, the antennae and swirls used a pin under 4 combined with a turning stitch. All the edges had a thick glitter passive added to give a central vein of sparkle.

The body features a chevron made with thick glitter thread and a thick white thread, this gave a line of dotted 'v' shapes inside the passive pairs along the edges.

I used little trails to recreate the sections of the enamel on the original, filling each little section with sequins, spiders, roseground, tallies, half stitch and Slincas filled with large seed beads.

The challenge in this design, was to see the paths of the threads as they were needed for different stitches and to see how the pairs from different sections could be worked in parallel to avoid lots of knotting into those narrow trails.

Most of the techniques are in my Youtube channel as little tutorials, so the video for this design is of it being unpinned.

My video here

https://youtu.be/A5rX-Jyu-bE

.pdf is available on my facebook page

Multicolour Leaf Tallies

Multicoloured leaf tallies open up a whole world of floral delight by giving tallies different colour edges, 

I have always liked the look of leaf tallies with different coloured edges so I had to have a go at making them along with Mayu Saaritsa from my online bobbin lace group. Mayu improved the management of all the different threads needed, by introducing two extra pins to hold the side threads away from the center tally, where they waited to be used. This made a big difference when using an angled pillow, to keep the shape of the tally. I call these the 'Mayu' pins as they serve a different purpose to temporary or pricking pins. In the video, you can see how useful they are to make the extra threads behave.

YouTube video here - https://youtu.be/irTW1yb-KzA

No doubt, after more than making these first six tallies, I will get better at them!  I didn't notice much difference if I wrapped the outer thread around the thick and spare side threads clockwise or anticlockwise, as long as the wrap is consistant.  Two wraps around the side bundle seemed to work well, maybe different threads will need different numbers of wraps.

The center tally worker was quite happy to do the work of tensioning for all the threads, drawing the side ones in nicely.  

To alter colours when making a series of tallies, it may be necessary to add quite a few different pairs into the bundles, in which case, add a few to work along with the center tally three passives.  This will help make the center tally larger, and if you like, bundle some in with the center thread to make a more pronounced spine.

Fine threads with thick thread pair added to sides

To close around the pin, or windmill cross with another pair, some of the colours may show through, if you choose a colour to wrap (like we did with the edges) the threads into two very short bundles, this will keep the mix of colours covered.    It takes time but the end result is worth it.  

Perle threads

These are my first five made with Perle threads so I could see what I was doing, I found it easier to make them in my preferred, finer thread.  The thick thread I used for the outer edge can be replaced with a few bobbins with different colours so you can really go to town and swap the colours all over the place!

 

Foggy 'Forget Me Not'

It was the Forget Me Not season, a soft low cloud of delicate, soft blue, Forget Me Not (Myosotis) flowers had been left to grow wild where they always do every year, spreading a little more each year as their seeds strayed out of the flower beds into the gravel.  The early morning dew gave the first rays of sunlight a chance to sparkle across the damp leaves and petals.  

A flower named for rememberance, for love and loyalty, gave me a suitable name for this little elephant, being  covered in flowers and sweetness.  With Forget Me Not blue around the face, roses on the forehead, mayflowers, like pajama pants, leaves and vines down the trunk and honeycomb patterning the ears, 'Foggy Forget Me Not' would make a lovely gift.

This pattern uses several grounds, all worked in curved spaces so pairs will need to be added and taken out as needed.  I often advise printing out a large version and using different colour pens to see where the threads will work out best.  The face and trunk are made first.  The ears are started from the top of the head, working outward to the sides. 

Work the leg with any pairs to be thrown out towards the outside edge where they can be taken into the edge trail. The second leg is made with the ground pairs sewn to the edge of the trunk, sorted into fours and plaited to lay on top of the trunk, sewn to the lower edge of the trunk where they revert to being ground pairs to finish the leg.  You could also just continue the ground, working over the trunk and sew at each side of the trunk, or even make the trunk last, sewing it to the trail edges as you progress. 

Of course, there are many ways to make this piece, I give you the way I made it.  The amount of pairs needed will depend on how you work the sections, unfortunately I neglected to count the pairs as I was adding and removing throughout. I guess at about 60 to 70 pairs, maybe more if you work the legs/trunk at the same time. 

The thread used for this is a single perle 8 thread paired with a single standard thread to give the blue line to the trail.  If I made this again, I would be tempted to add more colour, but the adding and throwing out means the order of the trail pairs often change and the colours can get moved side to side within the trails. 

A two pair edge is used throughout to allow for sewings, if you wish, you could make 3 or 4 little tallies along the trail at the bottom of the feet to look like little toes. 

'Remember me, for without your memories, I am gone'.

Print at A4

Pincushion Jungle

In a moment of madness, I bought this set of napkin holders at a local antique market.  I don't even own a napkin, and neither do I entertain at home so have no need of things like this.  My idea was to turn them into a set of pincushions.  

They languished in the 'crafts to do' box for quite a while till the fancy took me to do something different.  The challenge of securing the two cushions for the pins at either side took some thinking about, finally settling on a cotton lined velvet mini bolster.  

The elephant and tiger were easy to identify, the hippo identified by its teeth, but still not sure about the last one, possibly a warthog, or rhino, or something else.   They lined up for a photo and then the question of where do I keep them, how many pincushions so I really need?  

I tested how much pin weight it took before they fell over, more than I thought, thanks to the density of the wood. 

A few weeks later, I found a fifth napkin holder, another elephant, but carved by a very different hand.  I decided to make this one into my own pincushion and let the others go to a new home.  

Onto the next project!

Beginners - 1. The First Stitch

The first steps in bobbin lace are the most important.  The first two techniques - cross and twist - are the staples of bobbin lace making and will be used in all the stitches and styles of bobbin lace.

Video is available here on my youtube channel

https://youtu.be/Rond_FBjcbY?si=yATYUQusGnauFI1O

  

One of the first things you get told is to look at the threads, not the bobbins.  But, you have spent ages, and possibly lots of money getting a set of bobbins, why wouldn't you want to look at them all the time?  Because it is what happens at the end of the threads, the bit on the pillow, that is actually where the lace is being made.  A glance to make sure your bobbins are in the right place, sure, that helps, but when you have the same colour thread on 50 pairs of bobbins, how do you tell from looking at the bobbins if one has jumped over another and mixed up the threads?  You can't, you look at  the other end of the thread, on the pillow, see if a twist is missing, a pin in the wrong place, tension gone a bit awry, which is the next pin, the bobbins can't tell you this.  Look at the lace. 

But don't worry about that yet.  That will come in time.  First, have a go at a little bit of weaving, get used to handling the bobbins, get yourself so familiar with the basics that you don't need to even think about them because your hand/eye/bobbin movement will be second nature. 

A cloth stitch, (a simple weave made of just three movements, a cross, a twist and a cross), works side to side with one pair of bobbins.  This incredibly versatile stitch may look simple to do, but combining  twists and crosses makes it into many different stitches and patterns.  

The half stitch is the other simple stitch, made of just two movements, (a cross and a twist, which splits up the pairs of bobbins on the pillow).  Half stitch is often combined with cloth stitch to create even more stitches.   

The first of these easy going videos shows twists and crosses,  cloth and half stitch, explains pins, tensions and bobbin hitches at an absolute beginner level.  

Dress from Hell

When I was little, I was surprised when this crochet dress was sent to me from a distant Grandma I had only seen a few times. It was very scratchy and heavy, I wondered if she had made it for one of her other grand daughters who lived near her who refused to wear it! This is from the 1960's, made with barbed wire, sorry, early acrylic I think. Not something you would put a child in near an open fire.

My mother made a nylon slip to wear underneath it but that only served to make it turn static and make it more horrible than ever. Only a few years ago I got my revenge when I decided the memory was not one of the pleasant ones I wanted to keep from childhood and I threw it in the bin. I had offered it to a costume museum but they said they had a yellow crochet dress from that period already! This photo popped up during a clear out of my computer so I now inflict this dress from hell on my readers.

Working colours into Cluny/Beds style Muaiga lace.

Working colours into Cluny/Beds style Muaiga lace using plaits and leaf tallies.

There are more technical points in multicoloured lace than in white. The white threads are interchangable and can be swapped, crossed, thrown and added at the place you need them to be. When colours are added, the paths they take have to be considered to avoid a spaghetti of mixed up colours later on in the design.

In many of my designs there are often coloured threads meeting at a join which may not need to continue and need to be thrown out, or to be carried to a further pin without showing. Photo shows the colour change whipped plaits.

How to handle these extra threads?

Simply double up the pairs to make thicker plaits and throw threads out - this leaves thread ends unsecured along the plait and any unwanted colours will show in the plait.

Tie them off and sew in the ends - knots can interfere with a join and leave little lumps.

I prefer to hide them inside a whipped plait - not really a plait but with the same thickness it disguises the amount of thread being carried, and is barely noticeable in a plaited ground. Picots can still be made on the whipped plait and this can be used in both white and coloured lace.

There are two ways of making these, my preferred method is to whip using a blanket type stitch, or to wrap the worker around the treads and add a stitch every few twists. The sewn method tensions on every wrap, the second method has to be maintained along the length without the stitches.

Throwing out, or removing threads, is best done one at a time, laid to the back and only cut off after the plait is secured. Hold the thread in tension above the plait, lay scissors flat, cut close. The tension is used to pull on the thread a little so it wants to pop back inside the whipped plait as soon as it is cut.

The opposite is used when cutting a thread from the body of a tally, tension can pull the tally out of shape, even when secured at both ends, so cut close and carefully stroke with finger nail sideways to encourage the thread end to slip back inside the tally.

The video is available on my you tube channel using this link - https://youtu.be/K3mWlnHsq9M

This method can also be used to strengthen and stiffen plaits where a degree of support is needed, and picots can be easily worked along the length of the whipped plait.

Flower Bed with Beaded Edge

The Flower Bed Cartouche pattern in the previous post was adapted to create a similar flower bed, this time with a few more techniques, threads, and many more beads. 

To avoid using a lot pairs of passive pairs around the edge, I introduced a thick crochet thread which changed colour every inch, and had a pink lurex thread running through it.  This thick thread worked with a standard size thread to make a pair.  I added a row of large seed beads down the middle of the four passive pairs by using two workers, each worker having only two passive pairs to cloth stitch through.  

Abandoning the traditional white thread, I used a rather juicy looking sap green thread, a vintage Sylco reel coming in about 29 wraps per centimeter, so about the same as a Finca 40.

Each tally flower has a plaited circle between the tally and the beaded flowerette. The flowerette has a larger seed bead in the center.  The tallies are made with DMC variegated machine cotton, about 30 wraps per centimeter. 

The weight of the beads could be problematical if thrown out threads were not fully secured, so for this piece, I used a double knot to secure them before throwing out.  This meant that the piece is worked wrong side upwards, to avoid the knots, no matter how small, being seen along the edges.  

The video tutorial for the Seed Bead Flowerette is to be found on my You Tube channel here

https://youtu.be/6HEan966E5w?si=ohbxYMqdM0qAIuZS

Flower Bed Cartouche

This colourful little cartouche, filled with flowers and seedbeads can be adapted for yardage, or extended into a bookmark, replacing the seed beads with a 6 pair filling stitch, spider or crossing.

The idea of this piece was to not use white thread.  I mixed colours, makes, materials, and the thickness of the threads.  

The edges used the pin under four (two pair edge) and started by hanging the four pairs around an outer pin, twist one pair twice, cross twist cross and twist twice.  These pairs are now ready to work the passives in either direction.  Lay in the passives by hanging the pairs over a temporary pin just below the starting worker pin.  This edge will be worked in both directions so each pair is laid open, one bobbin going one way, it's partner going the other way.  You can lay different threads next to each other and they will be the same on both sides.  Work the worker pairs a little way and then remove the temporary pin. 

Start the picot circle of the flower, going in one direction, at the right, or left hand petal, not at the top three. Start the picot circle upwards. Hang two picot pairs around a pin, twist once and lay a magic thread in before plaiting to the first single thread picot.  Two picots are used on each outer plait between petals to maintain a curved shape. This leaves enough room to make the tallies, the edge, and to work the tallies after the crossing.  The two picot pairs will finish at this pin, after working through the last exiting tally,  using the magic thread to complete the circle.  The two picot pairs are either tied off and cut, or hidden by whipping them together with the unplaited pairs of a plait, throwing single threads out gradually after each couple of whippings. 

Add the plaited pairs at the inner edge pins, work through the picot circle to start the tally.  Add the variegated pair at this pin, one to work, one to be the center bobbin.  Each tally has two outer threads, one inside thread and one worker.  

The crossing at the center is somewhere we can have fun.  Divide into sets of three bobbins to work an eight pair crossing, this will give a little splash of green at the center of the flower.  Alternatively, make slightly shorter petals, work a half stitch center and make a raised and rolled tally with double threads in the center. 

To make the beaded flowerettes - pin between the two top pairs, add a seed bead to each single pair on each side.  Cloth stitch around the pin through the left and right plaits, add a seed bead to the single pairs on each side.

Flowerette

Work an unpinned roseground stitch with the two plait pairs. Take the plait pairs through the outside edge.  Add seed beads to the single pair.  Alternatively, a spider, a square tally or a simple crossing could be made in the center. 

After the flowerettes have been worked, the extra pairs which were added, just after the tally flower, will need removing by either being tied off, or the threads hidden by whipping them in with the unplaited pairs of a plait and throwing out the extra threads along the length to the next pin. 

Work the edge down where a horizontal tally will start and lay in two pairs with a magic thread around the pin for the picot circle around the tally flower as before.

The two pairs from each of the last four tallies, after they have come out of the picot circle, are taken into the edge.  Cloth stitch with the worker and take one tally pair and work through the passives only, tension and lay aside to cut off later.  Work the worker through the passives and make the stitch with the waiting worker.  Take the remaining tally pair and work through the passives only, tension and lay aside with other tally pair.  Continue with the workers in the usual way.

Thread notes.  I used DMC variegated thread which gives a very gentle change in colour between the palest hue and the main colour.  This gives the tallies a subtle colour variation.  A similar thread, the old Sylco variegated cotton has a shorter but still subtle change of tone which is lovely for tallies.    Gutermann variegatedand other variegated machine quilting threads, by comparison, are much shorter between the hues and tend to have sudden colour changes having big differences between tones and colours within each reel.  This leads to tallies with stripes of contrasting colour.  Hand dyed threads will have their own differences so it is worth checking the graduation of colour along a thread to see what kind of change you will get in your tallies.  

The .pdf is available in the Files tab in

Lesleys Lace facebook group

Tutorial for two versions of the seed bead flowerette on my you tube channel

https://youtu.be/DAvBFwAdeYk

https://youtu.be/6HEan966E5w

Sequinella Mermaid

 This piece felt more like a craft project than bobbin lace because of all the sequins!  

Sitting in my pattern 'to do' pile for nearly 4 years, Sequinella the mermaid finally made it to a pillow of her own when I lost the use of my printer and had no freshly printed patterns to make. 

I started at one end of her hair I worked to the head and back down the other side.  White thread in a simple cloth stitch had short lengths of metallic thick thread running through in gold, blue, green, silver and pink. On the outside of the curves, I added a line of silver seed beads to act as water droplets catching the light. 

The bodice is a simple half stitch in a selection of different colour threads. I did think of using variegated thread, but over larger areas, I find simply winding bobbins with different colours gives a more even blend.  Pale turquoise, pale green, aqua, kingfisher and spring green in Egyptian cotton machine sewing threads.  

The tally petals detail at the waist took care of the excess threads before the honeycomb ground was started.  

A bit fiddley at first, due to making the honeycomb with sequins inside the curls of the hair, I added the sequins on the diagonal row which only uses half the pins.  For the very narrow bit of the tail, I resorted to seed beads in the same colours till the fin was reached.  

The fin comprised several cloth stitch trails with sequins running close together in rows.  I varied the size of sequins in the fin but kept to the same colourway.  

A simple gold micro bead necklace was added as a finish and, after all this time, Sequinella the Mermaid is finally ready to meet all the sea creatures I have made. 

Tiny Dragonfly

A teeny dragonfly, ideal for using up those thread ends and practicing leaf tallies. 

Print at A4

Version 1

The simplest way is to start with two pairs around the first head pin, add a pair at each side at the pins. Cloth stitch to the pin where a tally joins. Put aside these 4 pairs for now.

*Add two pairs at the outside pin of the right hand tally. Work the tally to the pin where the other pairs are waiting. Using each pair as a single bobbin, cloth stitch the tally pairs through the body pairs including the worker (see diagram). Place pin and work the second tally. Close the tally with an overhand knot. Leave 4 inches and cut off the bobbins. *

Repeat * to * for the second pair of wings.

Continue to work the body, throwing out 2 pairs near the end so you are left with just 2 pairs at the pin. Use both pairs as single bobbins, tie an overhand and underhand knot. Cut these threads leaving quarter inch for the claspers.

After removing from the pillow. Take each pair at the end of the tallies in turn and thread a narrow needle. Carefully follow the center vein in the tally and draw the thread through from the tip to the center or so. Trim the excess thread.

More information on Lesleyslace.blogspot.com/

A selection of sizes are shown above, suitable for different size threads. I used Egyptian machine sewing cotton thread, which works at about 28 wraps per centimeter, to make the 2.5cm dragonfly, but will enjoy experimenting with irridescent and glitter threads. 

Version 2

Join two pairs at the body where it meets the first wing.  Tally out to the RH outer wing pin, plait back to the body pin and cross the tally pairs as shown in the diagram.  Tally out to the LH outer wing pin, work the pin and return using a plait as before. Follow the diagram to get to the lower wing body pin and tally out, pin, plait back, repeat as for the upper pair.  This avoids the need to sew the ends in after removing from the pillow. 

  

 

Leaf Tally with Beads

A dip into the world of extreme tally making. 

 

I saw a post about wire bobbin lace making where the tallies had beads inserted into the center of wire tallies.  Using wire gives an engineered stability to lace which thread just cannot copy so a bit of experimentation was called for.    

My first tally was a shy little one, with three tiny seed beads added at three points down the center vein.  A bit more confident second tally took a larger faceted bead which sat very nicely on top of the tally.  Third experiment was three seed beads added on the same thread, I can see issues with these trying to lie sideways and maybe pulling the thread so not my favourite, but would look great in a wide leaf tally as a cat's eye.  The last one was a foil lined bugle bead, this one sat best of all.  The straight sides helped it sit inside the tally and shows well on both sides.

On the whole, I am pleased with my first experiment, will be interesting to see what else I can do with leaf tallies. 

 Video on you tube here-

https://youtu.be/oPlR8A8djJ8

 

Dolphins Chasing Tails

A little diversion for me from the last few weeks of learning Bucks Point.  My hand drawn design filled in with honeycomb and triangle ground dolphins with glitter thread workers used in the splashes, variegated thread with seed beads used in the waves, and my favourite aqua sequins used around the border.  

The path of the pairs and plaits proved interesting and I made use of the border to throw out threads which had been attached to the dolphins which I worked first.  My usual style would have been to make this all in one go, but I did enjoy the relative simplicity of adding elements as I went along and working them piecemeal. 

Unusual for me, there are no tallies!

The triangle ground proved a real challenge, it looks simple enough when finished, but to make it stay in line and also bend around with the shape of the dolphin meant doing some of the ground in reverse!  

I had fun with this one.  The pattern is not released at this time. 

 

Bobbins? What bobbins?

How to make your bobbins disappear.

These any size two fold bobbin books hide themselves away in bookshelves.  

I couldn't resist this tapestry book fabric and had just the right place to use it.  These newly aquired painted Geoff Mudge bobbins needed a little case of their own and they will be used for metallic and sparkly threads.  This will leave my working bobbins free of those thread ends which tie up bobbins till that thread is needed again.  

I made the case to fit the pattern, with plenty of easement for the spangles and heads to not be squashed.  Well padded, they will come to no harm among my lace books.  

Have a look at the bobbin holder opening in the video here  Bobbins? What bobbins? You tube video

Daffodil Frieze

A little play on words to start with - freize and freeze with these bright, joyful flowers often appearing through the frost and snow. 

We live in a sheltered valley in the warmest bit of the country, so warm that back in Victorian times, early railways were used to get the flowers and soft fruits to London at speed.  

The growing season here is up to a month earlier than other parts of the country and daffodils were such an intensive crop, that hillsides were covered in them. 

The hillsides have been now taken over by the same woodlands which were destroyed to make room for these crops.  The daffodils grow at the foot of the trees, still in rows, making a woodland walk quite magical.  

During the wars, all non essential crops were abandoned to turn the land over to growing food for the nation.  Flowers were not a priority so the bulbs were dug up and thrown to the sides of the fields.  

Our old Cornish fields are surrounded, not by fences and walls, but by Cornish hedges. * These are wide, angled stone plinths running for several miles sometimes, infilled with soil, often covered completely with wild growth, sometimes full trees are growing up from them.  A haven for wildlife and rare plants.  Having been thrown to the sides, the daffodil bulbs just carried on growing, even from the depths of these hedges, and soon they bloomed, cross pollinated and now liven up the Cornish hedges with their yellow nodding heads. 

This design is really only one daffodil, set back to back with it's mirror image.  I do love art nouveau design and I was delighted to see that this flower lends itself to a repeat pattern in a similar style. 

This design only takes a few bobbins because it is made in sections.  The leaves are cloth stitch with a few lines of twisted worker to create veining along the leaf.  Use up odd bits of green thread to give the leaves a bit of depth.  I chose orange for the frill on the trumpet but there are so many colourways and shapes in the daffodils I see around where I live that there is no need to be particular, anything from white to yellow to deep coral can be used for the flower.  The petals are often a different colour to the trumpet. 

I made the daffodil wrong side up, so I made the small leaf first so that it was on top of the larger leaf when the piece is turned over.  There is no need to work from the back, it only depends on how you choose to join the sections, and if you want to work any sections with a rolled edge.  

This pattern was originally printed in the Lace Guild Magazine as a new pattern. Each Easter, I think 'is anyone making my daffodil?' so, after a few years, I decided to release it again.

This is designed to be printed at A4.  If you would prefer the .pdf, it is in the Files section of my Lesley's Lace Facebook page.    https://www.facebook.com/groups/907516516997481/

Old Cornish Hedge

Daffodils at the foot of a gnarly old tree growing out of a Cornish Hedge. 

* from the Cornwall Council webpage   "A Cornish hedge is a boundary structure distinctive to Cornwall. They are typically two independent stone walls to either side of a rab and earth core. Traditionally the stone used to construct these hedges relates to the geology of the local area. This is what makes them so locally distinctive. There are over 30,000 miles of Cornish hedges across Cornwall forming our largest semi-natural habitat. The majority are medieval in origin, and some were first laid out in prehistory."

Colour Plait Motif

Time to play about with a pattern again.  This little motif has been sitting in the wings, waiting for it's turn to get some attention.  There is a gap of a couple of years between making the two pieces, just long enough to find I had too many bobbins with coloured thread ends still attached which had reduced the number of useable bobbins.  

The same pattern was used for both, but I chose to start some plaits in different places, miss out some picots, and change colour of some tallies.  Instead of running the threads through the cloth stitch trails to throw them out, which leaves a small streak of colour, I tied the thrown out threads off.  Where I needed to throw a plait out, I hid it in the tally where I could, or hid different colours inside a whipped stitch, throwing single threads out as needed.

This gifted pattern is shown in several different guises along with the full motif shown in the photo.  A small center motif with a smooth edge, an edge only motif which could be used as a photo frame, or to put your own center inside, and a combined 9 pin edge and center motif. 

I used mostly Empress Mills 29 wraps per centimeter thread (they have 56 colours!) but I suspect some bobbins may have contained Dewhurst's Sylco thread, maybe even a bit of DMC Broder Machine 30.  They are all 100% cotton, practically the same thickness, so work well

I would love to see this made all in one colour, or even in white, which is what I prefer to use for a first time working a design.  The full motif takes about 52 pairs working both sides at once from top to toe.