Modern Crewelwork – Pomegranate Bag

It’s been quite a few months since I last had a pattern in a publication. Last year I stopped taking commissions for magazines so that I could concentrate fully on my new book. But since the beginning of the year I have been non-stop sewing for magazines and this is the first to be published.

I am trying to devote a portion of my sewing time to embroidery as opposed to quilting.  I love to embroider and feel I have so much more to learn and create with this medium.  The Embroiderer’s Guilds magazine Stitch commissioned me to design another piece, following on from last summer’s Passionflower embroidery.

Each issue of Stitch has a theme and this one is ‘food’. I decided to design something around pomegranates.  This is one of my favourite motifs and one that has been used for decoration since ancient times.

Regular readers will know that I have an aversion to ‘floss’ or ‘stranded’ thread and prefer a perle thread such as the Aurifil 12wt cotton in my Passionflower Collection Box.

However I thought I’d like to try something a little different and obtained some Aurifil 12wt wool (or lana) instead.  They come in gorgeous colours and have a depth and ‘mattness’ that I really like.  Around the same time we ordered some lovely new felt for the shop and the two things just went so well together that I combined them for this design.

I used small pieces of felt instead of using thread to ‘fill’ areas, then worked stitches on top like these Colonial Knits (my new favourite stitch!).

The background is a Manchester Linen in an orange shade which is quite difficult to photograph correctly.

Here is the finished design.  I used felt for the large leaves and blanket stitches around them, and I filled areas with a close chain stitch which is reminiscent of crewelwork, as is the ‘laid work’ trellis in the centre of one of the Pomegranates.

I’ve always loved crewelwork embroideries and have been thinking about ways to update them and make them look more modern for a while. The term crewelwork basically means embroidery worked in wool.  Strictly speaking the Bayeaux Tapestry and also The Great Tapestry of Scotland are crewelwork, both being embroideries worked in wool.

You can get a specific weight of embroidery thread called crewel wool and the Aurifil 12wt is a finer version of this.  I used the wool thread doubled for most of this embroidery which worked well.

I hope to create a lot more modern crewelwork designs using the  Aurifil 12wt wool threads (as soon as I have time!) as I just love that flat, matt colour effect.

When I finished the embroidery I turned it in to this handy tote bag!

You can see how difficult it is to show the shade of Manchester Linen orange in these photos, the ones above were taken against my barn and the one below was taken against a tree which is opposite on the same day at the same time!

The pattern for the embroidery and bag is in issue 118 of Stitch magazine which is on sale now. You can find it in WHSmiths and other good newsagents or from their website here.

I’d also like to say a big thank you to everyone that voted for me in the recent British Craft Awards – I got 3rd place in the Best Quilt Blogger award!!

This means such a lot to me, this blog is 10 years old this summer and has basically changed my life!

First place went to Lynette Anderson and second to Pat Sloan – both of whom I am honoured to follow directly behind 🙂