Schwalm whitework embroidery is a folk embroidery that developed in the Schwalm region of Germany. It is characterized by its folk design elements (tulips, hearts, flowers, and so forth) and drawn thread (openwork) fillings.

The little goldwork dots in the outside edge of the Medallion are under way again. There are 50 of these little dots in the edge, and they’re worked in a combination of pearl purl (for the outline) and chips (little cuts of check purl) for the filling.

If there weren’t 50 of these dots to contend with, I’d say they weren’t too time consuming. The dots are about 5/16″ – 3/8″ in diameter, so they’re pretty small. This makes manipulating the pearl purl (which is a stiff thread) somewhat slightly less than fun. Actually, every time I finish a dot, I find myself saying, “Bah – that wasn’t so bad!” and I move on to the next fiddly little blighter with an ever-increasing excitement at being one step closer to the end.

Today, I’ll show you how I work the pearl purl outlines and talk a little bit about working with this versatile and beautiful real metal thread.

Have you ever wanted to embroider your own little garden? If you have, but you’re not sure how to go about doing it, there’s a nifty e-book available out there to show you how. It’s called Stitching Idyllic: Spring Flowers by Ann Bernard. Ann’s little book focuses on creating your own unique embroidered garden out of recognizable flowers and trees, using very basic stitches worked in threads and combinations of threads that produce true-to-nature color schemes.

The Medallion Project is dragging out a bit longer than I had hoped! I did not meet my First Personal Deadline (which was Easter), nor my Second Personal Deadline (which was April 15), and now I’m pushing my Last Personal Deadline and Final Deadline of All (mid-May). I must be finished around May 15, because it has to be turned over the vestment-maker, to meet the June deadline. So it’s down to the wire! (No pun intended!) This may turn into a nail-biter!

Today I’d like to show you how I changed the order of work on the roses, and give you my reasoning behind that. You can apply the same principals to any embroidery – sometimes, you just have to change the “normal” order of work, due to some logical reason. I’m also going to show you the back of the goldwork, because this figures into my reasoning for changing the order of work.

When your vacation is looming, when you have company coming for an extended stay, when you know life is getting ready to go ballistic on you, what happens to your needlework? Do you abandon stitchery until the cyclone of activity blows itself out, do you plod ahead with your regular needlework pursuits, or do you plan needlework into those busy times by preparing a project that fits into your life when it’s in hyper-drive?

I tend to do the latter: I prepare a project that I know I can grab and take with me, or that I can concentrate 15 minutes of time on now and then, just so that I have some kind of project going – something that keeps the fingers busy when there’s some down time. Grab-n-Go needlework projects like these are never something that I feel pressured to finish in any particular time frame. They’re just a casual project that requires minimum supplies and tools, that can be easily transported, and that don’t require a lot (if any) real thought. No decisions to make, no techniques to work out – just simple stitching.

And you’d be surprised how soon you can actually finish this type of project (even if it is rather large!), if you keep it available for those little snatches of time when you can get in a few stitches.

About this time last year, I began collaborating with Mike Parr, to put together a collection of Hungarian Hand Embroidery Patterns here on Needle ‘n Thread. Since then, we’ve communicated back and forth about Hungarian embroidery and embroidery in general. Mike stumbled on a really nice gallery displaying samples of Hungarian hand embroidery.

A mellor is a goldwork tool. I’ve seen it spelled “mellor” and “melore” and “mellore,” depending on the source. Today, I’m calling it a mellor. Tomorrow, I might call it a mellore. I think it’s too late to dictate the absolute spelling of the thing. But however it is spelled, the mellor is a tool used in goldwork, and it’s a handy little thing to have.

Since we all have our Favorite Tools (and I’m pretty sure many stitchers become inordinately attached to certain tools, so much so that life would alter significantly without them), you can take or leave my assertions about the mellor. You see, I’m inordinately attached to certain tools, and I’m fiercely loyal to them. Insult my tools, and you insult me, says I. I stand up for my tools. I fight for them – Stiletto Wars to the Death!

Ok, ok! Perhaps I wouldn’t go that far, but I do like my tools, and there’s a reason I like them. So let’s talk about the mellor-melore-mellore.