Kielder Observatory and Wallington Hall Holiday Journal Pages.

underatopazsky

Nov 12

The last two daily pages for my 2023 Northumberland Holiday Journal are completed. Last to be started but the first of the two to be completed was the Kielder Observatory page. I've not shown any images of it before because it literally was just a pile of fabric. The hand dyed brushed cotton fragments with their swirly nebula-like patterns are going to be pieced for the background and the black will have a star map stitched onto it.

Not just any star map though. One of the many things I learned during our visit to the Observatory was how to locate the Milky Way when there is too much light pollution to see it. First, find the 'W' of Cassiopeia (luckily one of the handful of constellations I can actually identify) and then track downwards to the 'Summer Triangle' formed by the bright stars, Altair, Deneb and Vega. This, I learned, is a asterism, not a constellation, as each of the stars is the brightest star in its own separate constellation (Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra, respectively). The Milky Way starts at the bottom of Cassiopeia and flows down to and over the Summer Triangle.

First job was to put two pieces of the purple fabric together and add seeding stitches all over to join them into a solid piece and form a background. Then I found a relevant star map and sized it to fit on my scrap of black fabric so the relative spacing of the stars would be correct. I stitched the main stars in two-wrap French knots through the paper to make sure I got them right and then started to add other stars in smaller French knots.

I wasn't happy - it was untidy and I felt the main stars would be lost once I stitched the rest of the Milky Way, so I used some silver Madeira thread to stitch 'sparkles' through the French knots. This not only made them stand out but it anchored the French knots and made them a lot neater.

Then I scattered smaller French knots in a finer thread and some tiny seeding stitches in silver thread to complete my impression of the Milky Way. I think in hindsight something wispy behind my stitching might have helped with the look of the galaxy but it will always remind me of what I learned, even if the Milky Way leaves something to be desired.

One left - Wallington Hall. This one is to remind me of their incredible oriental porcelain collection. Last time I showed my progress it looked like this:

I finished the indigo dyed thread spirals a while ago and started adding some decorative bands to the top...

...and bottom of the vase.

I was using an oddment of lightweight silk thread for the 'white' elements, and my original idea was to stitch a floral pattern in the centre. But by this point I was almost out of thread. I was pretty sure it wasn't actually white and that my chances of matching it were slim to none, so I decided to use the indigo thread to create a branch and hopefully have enough of the 'white' thread left to add French knot blossom to it.

I worked the branch in layers of split stitch. I like the textured bark effect it gives and it's easy to build up the thickness in gradual layers.

Thread chicken next and I just managed it. I'm pleased in a way that I didn't have any more thread to play with otherwise I might have saturated the branches with blossom. I think this is an elegant sufficiency.