Lace

If you're looking for a Twitter account to follow that won't make you want to throw your phone into a fire, I highly recommend #WOMENSART (@womensart1). The account is curated by an art historian named P.L. Henderson, and features amazing works from across history and mediums. I was scrolling throw my feed this morning, and the posts featured artists who make or use lace or lace-making techniques in their work. This included artists like Cal Lane (who etches lace patterns on metal), Joana Vasconcelos (who uses lace as part of her sculptures and is an artist I talk about at the museum), and others ranging from unknown 18th century lacemakers to modern artists using the techniques in new ways. There's also a blog if you want to check that out too. 

I love this account. It's in my top five favorite Twitter accounts. I love learning about artists I don't know and learning more about the ones I do know, especially artists in the collection at my museum. A post back in January about crazy quilts inspired my first spider web design. The account breaks up the monotony and horribleness that is Twitter. 

As I was scrolling through the lace themed posts, I got to thinking it was time to try some of my new stitches in a piece other than practice. Other than the whipped back stitch (which I love), I haven't used a lot of the other stitches in a designed piece. Today's piece combines doubled laced back stitch, whipped back stitch, and the lazy daisy stitch in a lace-like design. It looks like the type of lace you might see on a ribbon or some sort of trim or edging. My lazy daisy needs some work, but I'm not mad about it. I could see this being a fun design to play around with for a larger piece with more floral as well (maybe a woven wheel or some satin stitch flowers). I also love this as a showcase for what you can do with variations on the back stitch. If you only learn the back stitch and some its variations, you can create really cool stuff. This took about an hour to make, so it's a relatively easy piece from a time perspective. 

Details:
Stitches: back, whipped back, double laced back stitches, lazy daisy stitch, French knots
Palette: SS 203 (3, 6 strands)