$ 0.00
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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.
$ 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 June 1st, 2024 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:
$ 3,520.00 - $ 3,683.00
A new online course started Jan 1st, 2024. Late registrations taken
There are only 27 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 50 spots starting on June 1st, 2024
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.
$ 697.50 - $ 747.00
This course is running again with 50 spots starting on June 1st, 2024.
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.