Mountmellick and Hardanger

I had a wonderful day yesterday teaching Mountmellick embroidery to a group of lovely ladies at Hobbysew, Penrith. We did the small honeysuckle doily from our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature. They did a great job, and some were very vocal about how much they were learning and enjoying the class.

I have never been to a class before that provides such amazing chairs to sit on. Most places I teach, we get plastic chairs (like the type they have in schools) or slightly more luscious padded ones. Well, the chairs for yesterday were in a different class completely: they were ultra-padded! It was a very comfortable day.

Last night I was rifling through a drawer of fabric to find some evenweave linen, and delightfully, I happened upon a partially complete Hardanger embroidery. It was definitely one of my designs, but I must have begun stitching it prior to having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (when parts of my memory got wiped) because I don’t remember doing it at all! It was a lovely surprise, and I really like the design! The Gymnast said, “That’s very nice, Mum, but it would be even better if it was finished.”

I estimate that I probably started it some time around 2007, because it is very similar in style to another one I did around that time. I will have to go through my old files on my hard drive to see if I can find my chart for the design. Who knows what else I might find while I do that…!