I wanted to show you this website with
beautiful Romanian Point Lace! I was looking for inspiration for a simple Christmas design and found this site. With some exploration, I found the original pattern for some of the designs.
RPL is not hard to design. You simply outline your shape with the macrame crochet cord couched down and then, THEN, comes the hard part: sewing the filling stitches in a pleasing manner. What kind of stitch, how much negative space do you leave, etc?
The cord is typically crocheted in size 10 or 20 thread and then you use smaller threads for the filling stitches. I wanted to try something even smaller, making the cord in size 30 or 40 and then the filling in 60 or 70. I think the thread I'm using now is size 30 but the label is gone and it was some I started a long time ago so I don't remember, but it looks smaller than other cords I've made. I found a bell and a sort of oval ornament shape that I might try for little Christmas gifts.
I didn't feel all that good last night. A headache had been trying to push through all day and my eyes hurt and I was a little congested and my hips grated upon arising. I finally gave in and took an allergy pill and some tylenol. My headache disappeared quickly and I was ready to kick myself for not doing it earlier! I'd been trying to tat off some shuttle endings and just couldn't get into it. Oh, did I forget to mention my fingertips are cracking already? So early in the season too - guess I better get some more humidity in the air.
Once the headache subsided, I was ready to DO something but it was getting late in the evening. For a few nights I have really wanted to embroider. I managed to get something transfered to fabric that will be a gift - better not say anymore as I'm not sure who might read it. I'm not certain how I will pursue that one yet so I decided I needed something small and simple to work on in the meantime. So I went to the computer and found a fairy graphic I had saved and printed it out. Then I transfered it to some fabric. Twice. The first time was with the blue tranfer pencil which for some reason bled out on the fabric, marring my lines. So I did it again in another spot with pencil. The blue should wash out but there is enough fabric that it will be okay if it doesn't. I posted on my other blog about
gifting opportunities and one of the items was pillowcases for homeless shelters or the women's shelter. I'm thinking this will make a pretty pillowcase for some little girl.
So then I had to find a hoop big enough. I had a small one but I don't like to have only part of the design showing and part in the area outside of the hoop so I had to dig a little but I find the perfect size, AND two bags and a box of embroidery thread. This will probably embarrass me like my
shuttle-finding did. I have a container with drawers for my floss. I always thought the majority of my floss was there. Wrong! When I was sorting through some boxes in the living room at the weekend, I found a whole slew of all kinds of threads, including embroidery thread. I sorted all that out on Sunday night. I really did not expect to find two large bags and a box of even more thread in a different location. Now I have so very many choices. What color, how many strands, what kind of stitch? I decided to do the body in black outline stitch. LOL! I know that isn't a big stretch but I debated on a flesh tone and decided against it. This is very simple embroidery. I'm not going to overanalyze it! I only got the two legs done before it was bedtime. I want to add some sparkly blending filament to the thread for the wand star and the sparklies in her dress. If it weren't a pillowslip, I'd put beads on there too.
I worked more on it this evening. My fingers are sore now. I had trouble with the embroidered fingers too. I used 2 strands of floss for the body and the sparkle flowers on the skirt. The skirt and the wand are some tatting thread I'm pulling off of the shuttle to empty the shuttles. I'll do more sparkly with the wings. It's been so long since I've embroidered that I'm reluctant to branch out on this with anything beyond regular thread. I'll have to do that on something else!
I haven't done the eyeballs or the mouth. I'm wondering if it will look tacky if I do or unfinished if I don't. I'm so wanting to add other embellishments. I thought of tatted rings for the skirt sparklies but as I said before, loose and hard stuff probably isn't a good idea for a child's pillowslip.
Well, hopefully an early night tonight!
I'm not very good with facial features and hands, it seems. I realized after the first attempt that a single strand of floss woud be enough for the face. I did do the eyeballs and lips in a single strand. The fingers were not outlined as well as they should have been to start with. Even so, this was a lot of embroidery for me. I used a silver thread with the wand and then gold with the star and wings. Sometimes I used size 40 tatting thread and other times I used embroidery floss, 2 strands. It's all ready to sew into a pillowslip now. My biggest stretch was doing the hair in French knots. I stitched the outline but wasn't happy with that so I started with the knots and loved the curly look so I continued. 
I sketched the bell pattern shape after seeing one online that I liked. I must have been feeling ambitious since I made 5 of them on this strip! When I turn it upside down, it makes a great flower pot but I'd have to draw the flowers in it too, to use it.
I pricked the guideholes and then couched one bell down. It only takes 8-9 inches of cord!
The filling stitches are done in size 40 DMC cordonnet. I had to change the top part. It's been a long time since I've done an arch and I was pleased to have the strands evenly divided on each side....only to forget that I needed to count the center too. I should have started the strands on each side of the center and not made the center a strand too. I needed an even number for the design I had in mind so I had to improvise and come up with something else.
