Online University

Registering now for January 1st, 2022 start - there are only 69 spots available out of 250.

If paid in full, your access will start with all the lessons from Jan 1st, 2020 to date open.   Paying in full is also a ~5% discount from installment plans.  

There are two ways to pay.  Either in full or on a 24-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.

24-months USA Shipping ($154/month)

24-months Canada Shipping ($157.75/month)

24-months Rest of World Shipping ($161.88/month)

• The course will be an 'all-in-one' course with over 230 packages of silk and metal threads, silk purls, stumpwork glass eyes, stumpwork wire, stumpwork fruit forms, linen fabric, slate frame, casket box and lid inserts, and finishing materials (silk lining, lining papers, gilt edge papers, gilt woven edging ribbons (2 types), hardware, silk ribbon, mirror, glue, etc) for the entire project including 560 pages of instructions that are printed from pdf pages online, 7 stitch animations and 9 hours of detailed finishing videos (21 videos). 

• The course only assumes the most basic of knowledge - threading a needle, doing a basic satin stitch.  Full instructions for couching, needlelace, using the thread types, framing up your linen, tracing pattern, etc. are included.  The stitching is divided about 50% couching down unusual threads, 25% satin stitch/french knots, and 25% needlelace.  The emphasis is on using the unusual threads custom made for the project, learning the needlelace and doing the finishing - things that are new to the typical stitcher.   I have posted a blog with comments about taking the course from previous students for their perspective.

• Casket is: 11.5" wide x 8" deep x 6" high with feet

• It is designed to be worked over a 24-month period.  There are only 69 out of 250 spots for this course left and it is not planned on being run again after the spots are gone as some threads will not be available and the cabinet maker is retiring next year and these are all the boxes I will get.  100 people have already taken the project with several of the caskets finished and looking lovely!  (see a finished student casket here) 

• The course starts on January 1st with user names/passwords for the online materials sent that day.  Shipments of the threads/fabrics will avoid Christmas to reduce the impact of Christmas issues at post offices, theft on porches, and customs back-ups for international students.

• There will be between 2-3 shipments for the course if paid in full.  The installment payment shipments will be 7 shipments.  The linen, slate frame and half the threads will be shipped first.  (For installment payments, this first shipment is divided into 5 boxes vs 1 box).  A second shipment will include the box and more threads.  The third shipment will be the finishing papers, glues, tapes, etc.  Box sizes are different and not all items can be shipped in one box.   The shipments are timed to correspond with payment milestones.

• The instructions are released one lesson a month online.  All previous lessons remain open after a new lesson is released.  An email is sent on the 1st each month to remind you to log in.

• You stitch at your own pace.  There is an online forum (NING) which all students past and present in Thistle Threads courses use as a discussion and Q&A forum.  Pictures can be posted.

• Orders paid in full will have access to all lessons and materials shipped earlier, taking into account issues with near-holiday shipping.  Materials are only shipped after students have been given fair warning with an email so they can be on the look-out for boxes and give notice of vacation holds. 

• US shipping is priority mail.  Overseas shipping is first class mail except for the wooden box which will come priority mail. Customs duties are the responsibilities of the student.  I can not ship marked 'gift' or 'educational materials'.

• Please do not email me with requests for box only, patterns-only, box building instructions, or to reprice the class without items you already have.  The answer is no.  Why is the answer no?

If you are interested in taking the course or finding out more, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu  

A casket has become available, if anyone is interested in working this project.  

This kit will include:

• 165 tubes Soie Paris
  
• 20-count Montrose Linen
  
• Slate frame
• Needles
• Double Casket with Brass Hardware (Tin is shown and no longer available)
• Turned wood feet (shown in pictures vs. video)
• Cream and Purple handmade finishing papers
• Pink lining velvet and silk
• Purple edging papers with gold stampings
• Gold woven edging tapes for interior and exterior of casket
• Italian beeswax rubbed marbled paper
• Antiqued mirror
• Old fashioned tacks and silk ribbon 
• Finishing tools (brush, relay, micro spatula, scraping card)
• Wheat paste
• Brass inkwell and pounce pot
• Bottles with brass tops

The online instruction will include:

• 18 graphs for the panels
  
• 20+ hours of finishing videos to cover the casket with the finishing papers and adhere the embroideries to the sides.
  

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.

• Casket is: 11.5" wide x 8" deep x 12" high with feet

• Worked in tent stitch over 20-count linen

• It is designed to be worked over a 24-month period.  It is not planned on being run again as the cabinet maker is retiring next year and these are all the boxes I will get.  

• There will be between 3-4 shipments for the course.  The linen, slate frame and the threads will be shipped first.  The second shipment will be the finishing papers, glues, tapes, etc. A third shipment will include the box   Box sizes are different and not all items can be shipped in one box.   The shipments are timed to correspond with payment milestones.

• The instructions are released one lesson a month online.  All previous lessons remain open after a new lesson is released.  An email is sent on the 1st each month to remind you to log in.

• You stitch at your own pace.  There is an online forum (NING) which all students past and present in Thistle Threads courses use as a discussion and Q&A forum.  Pictures can be posted.

• Orders paid in full will have access to all lessons and materials shipped earlier, taking into account issues with near-holiday shipping and the casket making schedule.  Materials are only shipped after students have been given fair warning with an email so they can be on the look-out for boxes and give notice of vacation holds. 

• US shipping is priority mail.  Overseas shipping is first class mail except for the wooden box which will come priority mail. Customs duties are the responsibilities of the student.  I can not ship marked 'gift' or 'educational materials'.  * If you live in a country with iffy postal system (South Africa, some of Asia, and South America) there will be a surcharge for delivery with courier and I am happy to look into this with you, email me.

• Please do not email me with requests for box only, patterns-only, box building instructions, or to reprice the class without items you already have.  The answer is no.  Why is the answer no?

• There are 64 double caskets that have been set aside for new students who learned late about the Cabinet of Curiosities because my cabinet maker is retiring in 2020, I would not be able to supply a casket later.  Currently those 54 are being reserved for the Four Seasons Stumpwork Casket. There will absolutely not be any more double caskets beyond this as we have used up the locks we manufactured as well.  It was an amazing and fleeting project.
  

If you are interested in taking the course or finding out more, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu  

5 are left

THIS COURSE IS OPEN TO ANYONE 

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.

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, special blue contact paper, and a pair of scissors made especially for this type of fine cutwork.

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.  

• This kit has everything needed to work a 3" deep x 5" long x 3" high trinket box in tent stitch over one on a 20-count linen.  
• The kit includes the wood trinket box, handmade archival covering papers, gilded edging paper, pink silk lining, brass escutcheon, gilt thread woven tape for the edges, linen, 32 tubes of Soie Paris and 6 tubes of a striped gimp thread.  
• Detailed Instructions for full assembly of the box as well as glue and a brush are included as well as links to a video of the paper covering assembly.  
• Gold acrylic paint for wood feet is not included in the kit, but is available at your local craft stores.
• There are only 30 of these kits as the Montrose Linen used is no longer available.