This morning at 5:30 the cat went off and woke me up. She had eaten all the cat food! Of course I am her biped with opposable thumbs. So she walked on me until I woke up. After making certain she had enough food I went back to bed. However I decided to outsmart her by staying up because I knew she would want to go out the window after eating. So I went through the book "Schwalm Embroidery, Techniques and Designs" by Christine Bishop. It didn't take long to read the book because there was only a short section describing what makes Schwalm embroidery. It has very specific rules to differentiate Schwalm from other forms of embroidery. First is the use of "Tree of Life" symbols. This embroidery uses tulip, heart, pinecone, sun, flowers, fruits, leaves, tendrils and dove designs. Schwalm also uses a variety of embroidery stitches some in specific orders. Chain stitches surround the designs followed by the coral stitch. The embroidery is also rich in decorative stitches and uses both pulled and drawn techniques. I have actually never seen any Schwalm embroidery and wouldn't even know about it if it weren't for this book. Looking through the book it has wonderful designs and projects and I enjoyed looking through the pictures. The instructions are very detailed but some of the illustrations for the stitches left me a bit confused. If I were just starting to learn pulled and drawn work I would probably have trouble. But with some experience and a book of stitches I believe I will really enjoy the challenge. The cat waited until I went back to sleep before wanting out!
The hardanger doily is coming along slowly. I forgot that it takes me four times longer to do things now. But I am almost finished with one diamond with lots of dove eyes. The rest of the doily will depend on how much time I have left after the diamonds are done. One idea is to make some needle woven squares to put beside the hardanger hearts. Guess it will work out somehow.
Hardanger doliy.
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