Historical Sampler – Golden Pomegranate  

Posted by MeganH in

Here is the original of the Golden Pomegranate – from one of the gloves at

http://2-minute-website.com/site/trustfund.trial/Spence-Collection-at-Bath-23362-23389

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That’s purling on the outside edges, so I decided to built it up in felt.

I did one layer for the centre of the fruit

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and two layers for the leaves and the ovary at the bottom.

Note that one of the leaves hits against a wasp *headdesk*

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I then outlined the leaves, ovary and the inner part of the fruit in chain stitch. I used 3 DMC threads, except for the inner part where I used 2, for textual variety.

I added sequins to the tips of the two leaves that I had tips for.

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I discussed what the stitch right in the middle could be with Mary Corbet. She came down in favour of raised buttonhole stitch.

raised_stem http://www.artsanddesigns.com/cgi-bin/makeGlossary.pl?category=embroidery&section=R

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I tried passing thread for the buttonhole stitch, but it was far too stiff and I got ‘ovals’ going over each horizontal thread instead of the thread pulling down into the next stitch.

I tried using DMC thread as the base lines, but they snapped under the pressure.

I ended up using Lurex as both the base threads and the buttonhole stitch thread. I pushed the stitches tightly against each other with my fingernail. It was an easy stitch to do.

And here it is with the purling done. It’s messier on the right side, and I like it that way. It seems more ‘natural’.

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The actual fruit is on a bit of a tilt, but I put the top sequin slightly to the left, making it look crooked. I just need to move it over a wincy bit. (You can see if you draw a straight line vertically up the pomegranate). The tip is wide enough to take it.

Why can I not spell pomegranate? Thankyou, spell checker!

I have been being very quiet because I’ve actually been working on another project! It’s a piece of calligraphy for a friend. The next few entries will be about it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 2:57 PM and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

2 comments

What a beautiful golden fruit. I really loved how dimensional it turned out and the different textures of the threads were perfect.

I saw that you "ran into" your wasp. In Japanese embroidery, we are taught to stitch whatever is in the foreground first. So, if you wanted the wasp in front of the flower, you would stitch it first. If you wanted the flower in front of the wasp, you would stitch the flower first.

You probably already know that but I thought I'd share just in case you didn't?? The pictures of your entire piece as a work in progress really make me smile -- it's a true sampler in every sense of the word. Bravo, my dear!

April 29, 2009 at 6:12 PM

I did know that about order of stitching, from needlepainting :-)

I think the wasp will be 'resting' on the pom.

Thankyou for the compliment! :-)

April 29, 2009 at 10:33 PM

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