Moorish style embroidered top: hand embroidered in bright colours but strangely fascinating in a black and white photograph
I seem to have settled into a blogging formula for myself whereby every post about white embroidery is followed by one full of colour. I swing between these two poles as if, surfeiting on the elegance and minimalism of all white, only deep, dense intense colour will do, until desire changes and once again I seek the cool calmness of monochrome. This post was to be no different, except that my favourite photograph of daughter No 1 wearing pink cheesecloth happens to be in an arty nearly black and white. I do, however, like the way the embroidery is partly hidden, indistinct and suggestive of casual luxury and I especially love the photograph of daughter No 1 in relaxed holiday mode in a Mallorcan café. Now comes the top in glorious colour…
Cheesecloth top with Moorish style hand embroidery (Mary Addison)
- I had great fun using deep intense magentas, golden oranges and petrol blues alongside acid yellows and limes that make my mouth dry just to look at them. It’s the sort of design that it’s best to work out fairly roughly – what sort of flowers and where to put them – and then just let the embroidery needle take you. My husband, who is an art historian as well as a vicar, is very fond of quoting Paul Klee’s approach to a blank canvas which involved taking a line for a walk. It seems to me this is often a useful approach with embroidery.
Cheesecloth top with hand embroidery: detail
Sinuous wavy lines are a joy to embroider and good for linking major elements of the design – why bother marking the fabric with chalk or pencil when it always seems to me that your needle has its own ideas about where to go next? Similarly, I can scarcely sew a fruiting body or an overblown flower without having it explode with seeds or a cascade of confetti like petals and spiral twists.
Cheesecloth top with Moorish embroidery: detail
The things I like best in this embroidery are the little magenta french knots and the wavy lines radiating from the central flower. I also quite like the grey seed pods whose split sides are opening to reveal pink and dark red striped seeds. And now I think about it, I’m also rather keen on stripes, whether used as infill as on the central flower or as two colour whipped stitch around the edge of the neck. (I really do like the magenta french knots best).
Cheesecloth top with Moorish embroidery
Now, I must get back to another white on white wedding monogram. The wedding is next Saturday and I might just get this one finished in time…