Nefertiti Shawl – the second pair of blue panels

Trialling Sorbello Stitch
Trialling Sorbello Stitch as a background

You may recall that I wasn’t entirely happy with the the first two blue panels. I’m still not entirely sure why, but I decided that I would work the second pair rather differently.

The outline of the pillar like shape, this time, was in Vandyke stitch using a Stef Francis variegated silk. Tricky, on such a mobile fabric, but I liked it enough to keep going, and moved on to a background using Sorbello Stitch. I rather like Sorbello Stitch – I used it for the villages on the Map of Amarna – and because I was working it at a tiny scale, the mobility of the fabric wasn’t a huge problem.

Second Version of the blue panel

On to the internals of the pillar like shape, and I started with a Ceylon stitch wheel. This is a needlelace stitch, and even with the fabric in a hoop, tension was an interesting challenge…

I’ve also made the background a chequerboard of Sorbello Stitches in two shades of blue. I must have really enjoyed myself!

Finally, I filled the rest of the body of the pillar with Ceylon Stitch. Tension was even more of a problem here, and I may have to come back to this and tweak it, restitch it, or even change my mind again. We’ll see!

In the meantime, however, I have to do another one on the other side of the panel.

8 Comments

  1. Sue Jones says:

    The Ceylon stitch works very well with the other stitches in the panel. They all show the variegated shades in the silk to good advantage. Any slight wobbles in the tension just add more interest to the knotted-woodgrain look of the panel. I do love those colours!

  2. Jen says:

    Beautiful colors!

  3. Oh, I love the variety of stitches and how you have combined them. You reminded me I have to add Sorbello Stitch to my Freeform Embroidery.
    You have used some great colours, too.

  4. Carolyn Foley says:

    Some of the stitches that I really like using there. And, I love the blue threads.

  5. kathy says:

    I love seeing all the differing stiches your are using on this, they are such a reminder of how stitch can be sued to provide a huge variety of effects. Really must go back to my Mary Thomas and do some revision!!!

  6. Lady Fi says:

    I love that cerulean blue!

  7. Susan says:

    It looks quite lovely in the enlargement even. The colors of the blues/purples with the golds is a great contrast. I will have to try those in my own CQ stitching.