$ 30.00 - $ 200.00
This pincushion is inspired by one made by Martha Edlin. She expertly worked counted thread techniques on non-counted silk satin fabric on her pincushion, casket and jewelry box. Originally taught in the COC course, it is being offered as a separate course for those who would like to understand the brilliance of Martha Edlin
The pincushion is worked on a silk satin fabric with the use of waste canvas and Au Ver a Soie Soie Paris threads. It is backed with pink silk velvet. The kit contains 13 full tubes of Soie Paris, silk duchesse satin fabric, pink silk velvet backing, needle, waste canvas. You will need a roller frame to mount the silk satin on tightly. I offer the same 12" rod/6" side bar set I used in the drop down as an option. If you need help finding one or checking to see if yours will work, I can give recommendations.
Installment Payments by Payment if Prefer:
3 months ($68.67/month) USA shipment
3-months ($71.37/month) Canada Shipment
3-months ($73.37/month) Rest of World
The course will be over 3 months. Kits will be shipped after Christmas.
Month 1 - setting up the frame and attaching the waste canvas to the silk fabric smoothly
Month 2 - stitching the embroidery
Month 3 - removing the waste linen for pincushion fabrication
$ 250.00
If you prefer subscription payments, click the blue link for PayPal:
3-months Silk Lacet Bouquets ($87.67/month) - USA Shipping
3-months Silk Lacet Bouquets ($90.33/month) - Canada Shipping
3-months Silk Lacet Bouquets ($93.12/month) - Rest of World Shipping
In the 17th century boarding schools, young ladies used finger braided lacet to form flower petals and construct stems and bouquets of flowers to put in their embroidered caskets or give as tokens of affection. There are many of these in museum and private collections, including a wonderful set at the Ashmolean museum. Daisies, strawberries and flowers, pansies, and other beautiful flora were all invented complete with serpentine leaves.
This 3-month course will show the basics of forming petals, leaves and berries and then assembling them into stand alone stems or little bouquets. They are appropriate for small vases, shadow boxes, boutonnieres, or surprises in drawers of your casket or for internal gardens for your casket.
The kit will include a variety of silk lacet braids in eleven colors, 12 tubes of soie gobelin silk threads, and small amounts of threads like silk facette, silk purls, and silk laid down trim which are useful for flower centers. Silk covered wire and cotton forms are included for berries and stems. Between four to five bouquets similar to the pictures can be made depending on how many flowers you make. Kits will be shipped by January 1st. On January 1st, an email will come with access to the course, user and password.
If you have taken the Four Seasons Project or Stitch Along, much of the information will be repetitive; although there will be at least two new flower types.
$ 3,520.00 - $ 3,683.00
Next Full Start is Jan 1st, 2025. Late registrations taken for 2024 version if paid in full
There are only 21 spots available out of 250.
Paying in full is also a ~5% discount from installment plans.
There are two ways to pay. Either in full or on a 18-month payment plan using PayPal. The links in blue below are for payment plans and take you to a PayPal page to complete the order. Shipping is included, so please choose your correct region. If your preferred email or shipping address is not the same as entered for PayPal, please email me with the correct info. Husbands have a tendency to unsubscribe your class emails.
The installment plans have changed to have a total of seven shipments vs 2-3 shipments when paying in full. That is why there is a discount for paying in full.
18-months USA Shipping ($205.33/month)
18-months Canada Shipping ($210.33/month)
18-months Rest of World Shipping ($215.85/month)
If you are interested in taking the course or finding out more, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu
$ 750.00
This course is running again with 25 spots starting on January 1st, 2025
Late registrations taken for 2024 taken with full payment
For installment payments by Paypal, click the appropriate blue link:
$85.64/month for 9-months USA Shipping
$88.76/month for 9-months Canada Shipping
$90.43/month for 9-months Rest of World Shipping
This 18-month online course is a stand alone course, but complimentary to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It is intended to be a comprehensive investigation of stumpwork techniques of the 17th century. It includes:
The class kit will include linen and threads to enable the student to practice all the needlelace stitches. There will be samples of thread types (purls, gimps, facette, rococo, lacet, stumpwork forms, etc) to allow the student to experiment with them before embarking on a project they envision. The kit will be shipped in 1-2 parts.
The instructional material fills about three 3" binders and it is recommended that the students keep the material filed on their computer or iPad if they prefer.
Each lesson is released on the 1st of the month with an email to the student to remind them to log into the student teaching portal to download the materials. Animations can be watched on the portal at any time during the course and used over and over. Once a lesson is open, it stays open until the end of the class. A three-month period after the course is given to finish downloading. A link to an animation playlist hidden on YouTube is given to the students at the end to refer back to in the future for use in working stitches.
$ 300.00
Have you wanted to design or modify your own historic-looking samplers? Perhaps you want to make a family genealogy sampler in a particular style? Have an over the top 17th century band sampler in your head? Maybe you love the monochromatic Quaker, Vierlande or French samplers and want to design your own. Have a needle book idea you wanted to design? This 4-month online course will teach the fundamentals of how to design using source material.
The course will start on February 1st, 2025 with user names and passwords to the Thistle Threads online course site emailed in the morning. Each lesson will be released on the 1st of the month for download. At the end of the course, any video content will be provided as a private YouTube playlist for future reference.
Full pay by button above or if interested in installment payments by Paypal click blue link:
4-months Sampler Design Course ($75/month)
The course includes:
$ 697.50 - $ 747.00
This course is running again with 50 spots starting on February 1st, 2025.
Paying by Installment - click the blue link for PayPal subscription:
18-months at $38.75/month with USA Shipping
18-months at $40/month with Canada Shipping
18-months at $41.50/month with Rest of World Shipping
This 18-month course is going to take a very deep dive into the whitework/cutwork found on English band samplers of the 17th century. While we are attracted to the large geometry patterns, often called reticella, there are several other techniques which are characteristic and found on most samplers of the period in concert with these complex bands. Over 1/2 of the course will be devoted to the reticella techniques.
The course is a mix of learning techniques, projects and designing your own whitework band sampler. You are being given enough materials to work one to three small pieces of linen with trial stitches so you can feel confident with techniques and material choices. Then there are two sampler projects, each with one band of reticella to explore a mixed colored counted work band sampler with the cutwork. One is based on a sampler from the Winterthur Museum collection and the second is inspired from a favorite piece of mine in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. This piece is a unique example of colored silk threads being used for reticella and I think it is a unique project that combines ease of sight because of the colored threads but also technical challenges to hide the color changes and thus it provides a master class in this reticella technique on the whole.
The third project is a punta-in-aria length of lace. A fourth project can be worked, a band sampler of your own design based on all the materials we will be looking at, provided patterns, and the real 16th-17th century pattern books. In order to do this, the course is taking on the unique challenge that presented the 17th century teacher/embroiderer - the geometry and math of this type of work. When looking at band samplers, we will find that often the pattern didn’t quite fit the chosen width of the sampler the person had chosen to make and that had consequences that had to be filled in or not. It could make for awkward spots in an otherwise stunning piece. I wanted to solve that and answer the questions of how to scale the patterns, how wide to work the bands, over what count and if you were working all these bands with disparate scales of withdrawn threads, how to make them all fit exactly in the boundaries of the sampler without excess room left over in the band.
The course will include detailed photographs of at least five samplers to illustrate techniques. This will be augmented by Pintrest boards to go with the course as both a general reference and specific references in the course text to illustrate points.
Each technique will be accompanied by many patterns which can be cut and arranged and used directly as patterns for your personal sampler. I will also be giving guidance on how to convert many of the patterns found in the 16th-17th century pattern books to the correct scale so you can use them as well as how to look at a pattern and determine the best stitch choices and progression of working the pattern.
Choices of materials is a big part of this course. You have three linen counts that the course has been designed to use. A 30ct, 40ct, and a 53/55ct linen have been provided with enough of each to be used for two projects - the one I intended and your choice of which for the personal sampler. So the ambitious will have extra linen for other projects of this type or can repurpose it. Both silk and linen threads will be used for the samplers matching the thread to the original pieces.
The kits will include all three linens mentioned, silk threads, linen threads, needles, and special blue contact paper.
The course requires a basic understanding of counted work including running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch and a willingness to explore other counted stitches such as alternating backstitch and Montenegrin stitch. Full instructions for these stitches is included as well as diagrams specific for the motifs to enable a student to turn corners and make diagonals with these initially more challenging counted stitches.
$ 355.00 - $ 490.00
This course will start again on February 1st, 2025
3-months $171.84/month USA Shipping
3-months $178.05/month Canada Shipping
3-months $186.62/month Rest of World Shipping
This 3-month course has two approximately 5" x 5" flower basket projects that can either be hung together or used to line the inside doors of a double casket/flat casket with doors. The projects use silk purls in multiple sizes, scallop trim, gilt 1 1/2 twist, and chardon coupe and bouclette on a 40ct closely woven white linen. The kit includes all fibers, needles, linen piece and slate frame to work the pieces. There will be one kit shipment.
NOTE: Slate frames are currently unavailable. If you already have a slate frame, there is an option without slate frame - but note this can not be done in a hoop or hand. A large roller frame can work.
$ 500.00 - $ 1,990.00
Rolling admissions
This is a read-only version of the very popular Cabinet of Curiosities course. The course is 18-months and over 1000+ pages of information and photos. Read-only means that the instructions/history sections are downloadable but there are no kits for the course. New students accepted late.
This course is of interest to anyone who may already be taking a project class to work a embroidered casket (i.e. Harmony with Nature, Five Senses, or Four Seasons). It contains all the historical background to the period, stories on the cabinets, designs, bottles, inkwells, boxes, casket toys, discussions of beaded baskets and other topics related to the embroidered cabinets. It also includes over 1000 photos of historic pieces up close. The course provides extensive context to the embroidered boxes and related objects.
While the instructions for the small projects that were included in the original running of the course, the kits will not be provided. Students can gather materials and make any of the projects. But current supply chain issues makes it difficult for a kit offering with the course.
There are instructions for several mini-projects as well as a trinket box in the instructions and access to all the finishing videos for the different cabinet sizes/configurations.
The course also contains access to the extensive collection of motifs and pre-designed caskets. A person can use these to modify a casket in progress or design 17th century themed pictures. Templates for the outside of the caskets I had produced are part of the course, some handy woodworkers have fabricated boxes with simpler internal parts using these to match. No instructions on how to fabricate a box are included.
Periodically, a casket is returned to me by a student who has decided not to work it (a change in health is the most common reason). In those cases, I will post the box here available to be purchased with its finishing materials and course for those who want to design their own. I also maintain a list of those who have already taken the Cabinet of Curiosities course who are looking for a particular cabinet type and try to match people up (but no guarantees).
Please email me with further questions: tricia@alum.mit.edu
I currently have 160 spots left in my licensing agreements for historic photos to run this.
$ 85.00 - $ 757.75
These kits/prices are only for students in the 2022-2025 Cabinet of Curiosities which has been held read-only without kits. Recently a few materials have become available in limited number to make possible some kits which previously had been unable to be made.
Lesson 6 - Butterfly Pincushion
Lesson 6 - Rose Glove
Lesson 7 - (Martha's Silk Satin) Pincushion
Lesson 8 - Velvet Stitch Scissors Case (limited number of these available)
Lesson 12 -16 - Trinket Box (exploration of many techniques)
Use the pull down menu to see options. Because of threads that can be shared between kits, purchasing them in bundles makes them more affordable. There are three bundle options:
Bundle 1: Butterfly Pincushion + Rose Glove + Martha's Silk Satin Pincushion ($70 savings over individual kits)
Bundle 2: Butterfly Pincushion + Rose Glove + Martha's Silk Satin Pincushion + Velvet Stitch Scissors Case ($120 savings over individual kits)
Bundle 3: Trinket Box + all kits ($240 savings over individual kits)
Depending on which option is chosen, some kits are available now and some will be available in early January because thread spooling must be done.
Sold out
I am recovering from a hand injury and so new 2025 courses are dependent on recovery speed.
Details Coming Soon. If you want to get first notice that this class is registering, sign up on the interest page.
A new sampler design using a combination of counted stitches and free embroidery using crinkle silk. Crinkle silk was an American invention on the East Coast at the end of the Colonial Era to the 1830s. Made by unraveling or untwisting thread the twist caused the filament silk to kink and this wave in the silk was retained when working long satin stitches. The technique seems to have started in northern Massachusetts or Boston and traveled around the colonies and early United States as a way to work samplers. The light play that the use of crinkle silk gives makes it a worthwhile technique to learn how to use to make your samplers more authentic looking. Learning to work with the untwisted thread will be the focus of the project.
The design is small, about 7" x 10" and features a large flower display at the bottom. Worked in colors of blue, green, red, yellow and pink with neutral browns it is inspired by many different samplers of the period.
Sold out
Details Coming Soon! If you want to get first notice that this class is registering, sign up on the interest page.
I have been imagining this casket for years but didn't have the thread yet. In the 17th century almost all silk purls had a silver strip wrapped around them so you could still see the color. The highly textural embroideries with couched or looped frosted silk purls would glitter and sparkle as you walked by. I have an original piece of this work and it is just breathtaking.
This floral casket with four classic animals (lion, leopard, stag and unicorn) will be embroidered in a mix of frosted silk purls with accents of just plain silk purls and checks as well as gold threads and spangles. The matt animals will complement the glittering flowers surrounding them.
The project will be worked on a short flat casket and will be a complete project, meaning the box and finishing materials will come with it. I only have 80 caskets to divide between this course and the Four Elements Tent Stitch casket course so interest and material availability will decide how many spots there are (between 30-50).
Progress will be followed on my YouTube Channel - Thistle Threads with Tricia Wilson Nguyen as the piece progresses.
Sold out
I am recovering from a hand injury and so new 2025 courses are dependent on recovery speed.
Details Coming Soon! If you want to get first notice that this class is registering, sign up on the interest page.
A tent stitch worked casket based on the four elements - fire, water, air and earth with the top design showing a man and woman. There will be two top designs provided but only one stitched for the sample. This short flat casket will be worked in tent stitch in silk on a 24-count ground fabric. The look will be similar to the Five Senses Double Casket as the background and ground will be fully stitched using silk.
The course will be sold as a full project class with casket and finishing materials. The exact number of spots is unknown as the 80 remaining caskets will be divided between this course and the Frosted Silk Purl Floral Casket based on interest and material availablity.
Follow progress on the casket on the YouTube channel Thistle Threads with Tricia Wilson Nguyen
$ 720.00
Thistle Threads
Double Casket with Four Seasons Design in Stumpwork Stitch Along (Already Own Casket)
$ 720.00
If you want installments - click the BLUE text not the drop down menu.
THIS COURSE IS ONLY OPEN TO THOSE COC STUDENTS WHO ALREADY OWN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CASKETS:
There will be a version of this course for new people - after the piece is stitched and so the price is known. If you want to be on the wait list for this - email tricia@alum.mit.edu
This 36-month online course is open for reservations - instructions start Jan 1st, 2023. This will be run exactly like the stitch-along for the Harmony casket. Students will pay for monthly instructions for the sides and will provide all threads and materials. It is assumed that the student has the required casket already as there are no more to sell.
The design is shown in the black and white diagram. It will be worked in stumpwork in a variety of COC threads with an emphasis on raised work - dresses, detached flowers, feet peaking out, etc. Thread bundles will be periodically offered for those who want to 'kit' the class as they go. If you are thinking of 'kitting' the project with the thread bundles I will offer - please let me know (tricia@alum.mit.edu) so I can put the correct numbers aside. This isn't a commitment, it just helps me choose threads for the project as I go so I don't choose one so rare that it can't be supplied in those approximate numbers.
Design drawings will be available for those who own a flat casket or flat casket with doors. People are encouraged to mix their own elements in or just use a few panels for their casket to make it more their own.
There will be an insert for the tray and a set of panels for the inside of the doors that are embroidered. The pictures of the flowers in the baskets are the inside of the doors already finished. This pattern, instructions and thread kit will be made available soon separately for those COC students who are already working on a design of their own and want to incorporate these inner doors into their design. The instructions and thread kit for the insert will also be available separately for those who aren't doing this casket design.
Please email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu for any questions.
NOTE: The video is of a different casket and not the one for this course - it is only an example of what a finished casket looks like. The black and white drawing is the design for the course. It will be embroidered in stumpwork.
$ 450.00
If you have always wanted an embroidered casket but are not sure of taking on such an enormous project, this kit was designed to allow people to make a sweet little trinket box, modeled off smaller boxes of the 17th century. The box can fit a number of small needlework accessories like scissors and needles. The edgings for these kits are now SILVER.
Sold out
When a casket comes available it will be posted. Email me to be put on wait list
The online instruction will include:
If you like the look of this casket and it is outside your budget, There are some small trinket boxes with tent stitching as the project - this is sold as a kit and there are about 50 of them left. The trinket boxes are 3" x 5" x 2.5" in size and can hold scissors and some threads next to your stitching table.
If you are interested in taking the course or finding out more, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu
Sold out
Because my cabinet maker is retiring in 2020, this course is being offered as a bundle because I would not be able to supply a casket later:
- a Double Casket
- all finishing materials needed to assemble the casket
- threads to complete the Four Seasons design (see B&W diagram) for the casket in stumpwork as well as the lid insert and the inner doors (see silk purl floral baskets). Pictures of 12 finished panels are shown.
- mirror, inkwells, and bottles
All you need is to provide the labor to make your dream casket. This is the last opportunity for a double casket. My cabinet maker has committed to the last numbers of pieces he is making and our last hardware has been cast and locks made and delivered.
NOTE: The video is of a different casket and not the one for this course - it is only an example of what a finished casket looks like. The black and white drawing is the design for the course. It will be embroidered in stumpwork.
$ 10.00 - $ 360.00
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