My First Ecclesiastical Embroidery. A Very Special Project.
Hello crafty friends! Today I wanted to take some time to briefly write about this project. It is actually a set of embroidery pieces that I created to decorate the table for my daughter’s First Communion. It was a set of firsts for me: my first time doing this style of designs, my first time working with this amount of linen and also my first time working with floche.
The designs are part of a collection of patterns from Mary Corbet the artist behind Needle ‘n Thread. Mary has written extensively about ecclesiastical embroidery (as well as many other embroidery styles) and her site is the best source to learn about this exquisite style.
I learned that ecclesiastical embroidery has some particularities, especially when it comes to the use the piece will have. For instance, the colour and the type of fabric, will be determined if the pieces are to be used at a church’s altar or if they’ll have a decorative use. I wanted to be mindful of all those details so I drew knowledge from this series of posts and I followed most of the suggestions when it came to fabric choices and their treatment, as well as recommended threads.
Both pieces are done in white linen and embroidered in cotton floche. I used a variety of traditional stitches such as split, stem, back stitch, bullion knots and satin stitch. For the medallion I dared to try quaker stitch for the first time. By keeping the stitches fairly basic, I was able to work at a good pace to finish my project in the desired time. These pieces are not much about the complexity of the stitches but about the designs themselves and the materials used.
The IHS medallion for the table runner and the grapes and wheat designs are from Needle N’ Thread. The corners for the table runner were added after I had finished the medallion and thought the piece needed some more details in the borders. I adapted a small design I found online and filled it with some basic stitches using cotton floche and stranded cotton.
Mary has a very generous and detailed stitch library that you can access here.
This was a very meaningful project for me. Like I said in the description, the medallion became the center of a table runner and the grapes and wheat corner, was converted into a small side table cloth that I donated to the church were the event was celebrated.
Here are a few more photos of my work, I hope you appreciate them and take inspiration from them.
Thank you so much for visiting and please do not hesitate to contact me or make a comment if you’d like additional details.
“Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things but to do the ordinary well”
