That is the completed central medallion for the altar cowl. It’s only a tad smaller than 8″ in diameter.

I labored the design in flat silk (the blue background), gold passing thread, a unending ton of gold and silver chip work utilizing vibrant verify purl, stretched pearl purl twisted with flat silk, gold and silver rococo, various kinds of gold and silver twist, and a purple silk faceted gimp.

The central stone is a blue topaz cabochon set in a fragile gold bezel custom-made with flattened facet “loops” to repair it to the bottom cloth earlier than build up the goldwork round it.

The picture above was taken whereas the piece was nonetheless on the body, simply after I completed it. I didn’t clock my hours on the medallion alone, however I estimate roughly 220 hours on the medallion from begin to end, over the just about 5 weeks it took to embroider it.

I realized many classes about timing and planning for one thing this dimension. So Many Classes! Primarily, such a work can’t be undertaken final minute – and in terms of hand-embroidered items like this, particularly if you’re not counting on a crew of many, then something inside a yr is just about “final minute.” A yr out looks as if a very long time on any challenge, however don’t delay since you assume the deadline is within the distant future. That yr goes quick.

Slicing out the embroidery is at all times the nerve-racking half!

Earlier than the embroidery was faraway from the slate body, I pasted the again with rice paste – the identical type that you just’d use to stick the again of, say, Japanese embroidery or related.

The paste provides a bit stiffness to the piece (however not an excessive amount of stiffness) and it provides further safety to the threads on the again of the work.

I’m guessing there can be eyebrows raised at this level and a few people might say, “However you must by no means use paste on embroidery.” There’ll most likely be people who point out that conservation efforts are at all times extra problematic when paste is used.

Simply needless to say this embroidered piece is not a museum piece. It’s not meant to final perpetually. It’s meant for church use. Will probably be dealt with fastidiously, however will probably be used day by day – that’s what it was made for. And a few day, it must get replaced. And that’s regular. It’s being utilized in a climate-controlled surroundings, in a brand new church, so I feel it has probability of lasting some time. However to assume it’s going to final in pristine form for a protracted, very long time will not be reasonable.

The pasting helps it maintain up higher and can add some longevity to its life.

Initially, I deliberate on utilizing a turned edge appliqué for the medallion, however I used to be not happy with the outcomes once I tried it.

So, earlier than appliquéing the medallion to the velvet material, I trimmed the sides of the bottom linen right down to about 1/8″ from the stitching.

Then, I pinned the medallion in place and used gold silk thread and blue silk thread, waxed, to tack the medallion in place utilizing invisible tiny stitches all through the design, tucking the tacking stitches into the embroidered areas. Then, I labored across the complete design, tacking in gold silk thread beneath the gold twist on the sting.

Lastly, to complete the appliqué, I added one other layer of twist that was sewn onto the velvet over the 1/8″ fringe of linen.

Earlier than formally handing the duvet over, we fitted it on the altar a last time to make it possible for it hung as deliberate.

We had fairly a little bit of final minute adjusting to do – together with re-working the material utilizing a special lining strategy. Your complete material was hand-hemmed and the liner sewn in by hand, in order that took time, too.

That is the material held on the altar, earlier than the altar was dressed with linens. (Usually, the altar cowl covers an altar that has linens on it already.) For the reason that church wasn’t in use but, we had been in a position to come and go to suit the material and to make changes as wanted.

One thing distinctive to the altar cowl is that this little get-up.

Most altars like this one have a number of inset items of {hardware} just like the one pictured above mounted to the marble at intervals throughout the altar. The {hardware} contains a small screw that has a broad, flat base. The {hardware} is used to carry the altar linens in place.

Altar covers sit on high of this screw mechanism or they sit simply in entrance of it, leaving about 1/2″ of the linen uncovered. This 1/2″ tends to get dusty fairly rapidly.

Due to the burden of this altar cowl, we would have liked some sort of resolution to carry the duvet in place in order that it didn’t slip. Utilizing common cotton cloth to apply with – and an entire huge number of sorts of rings and issues – I found out an answer for these inset rings that may match over the linen {hardware}.

After fiddling round to verify it might work and it didn’t look too terrible, we needed to “translate” it to the velvet material. Whereas I used to be ending up the medallion, Anna practiced on scrap velvet earlier than stitching the rings into the altar cowl.

There are six rings like this sewn into the highest hem of the velvet cowl, that match over the six items of {hardware} on the 11′ 7″ huge altar. I’m actually happy that these labored out, as a result of I wasn’t positive they might! They prompted me many a sleepless night time whereas attempting to determine them out!

Right here’s a view a bit additional again from the altar, nonetheless inside the sanctuary of the church.

I wasn’t in a position to get a photograph of the altar when it was all arrange, however another person despatched me an image taken with a cellphone and zoomed in from the choir loft. So, regardless that the image is a bit grainy, it provides you with an concept of what the duvet appears like in use day by day. The letters are positively readable!

So, that’s the tip of that exact challenge!

And now it’s time to get again on schedule.

Coming Up

We’ll get Little Blooms underneath method once more this week. I’m sorry we needed to delay it, however hopefully, we’ll have clear crusing now!

Whew. It was a tough few weeks. It’s so good to be again to regular once more!