Colorway for Variations of a Florentine Design by Pat Mazu, an ANG Cyberpointers Chapter Project

March 4, 2022, 10:55 pm
Filed under: ANG CyberPointer's chapter, Variations of a Florentine Design

Thanks to two of my ANG Main Line Stitchers chapter members, Debra and Linda, I have quite a stash of Pearsall’s Silk embroidery thread. Since it has has been discontinued, I’ll use it for other people’s designs when I want to use my own colorway. And, that opportunity arrived with Variations of a Florentine by Pat Mazu which is this month’s program for the ANG Cyberpointers chapter.

Pat is providing 2 booklets (pdf downloads), one with the design which can be made into 4 different options and the detailed instructions for finishing them. And, at no charge! She provides 35 pages including an extensive bibliography mainly on bargello for the designs and 47 pages also with an extensive bibliography for finishing. Very generous of Pat to share her experience with ANG Cyberpointers’ members.

I’m working on the design in a rectangular shape which will be for a travel eyeglass case. I have a leather tooled case that my grandmother made and I don’t like taking it out of the house in case I were to lose it. Isn’t this lovely!

I’ve got 2 colors and a neutral: Marigold, Sage Green, and Olive Brown, respectively. I had 5 shades of Marigold to choose from. The lightest one was too close to the Olive Brown when stitched. It looked like more contrast when they were in the bags. Pearsall’s is a very pretty silk but a little difficult to handle. It catches easily and is difficult to lay. Mary Corbet describes it as “bumpy”. Is this what people use thread conditioners for? An internet search revealed they are beeswax mainly. I don’t think I want to try that. Using shorter lengths and ironing the threads are helping. Dampening the threads very slightly was also suggested and is helping some too.