Crewel World, Jacobean Style Pillow Tops.

Sorry I know that is an old joke but then so am I!  For the French Altrusa tree I wanted to make some pillows.  I wanted the pillows to look period as if someone in a 18th century home made them.  This is what I bought more then 50 skeins of embroidery wool for a couple week ago.  So yesterday instead of doing hundreds of tiny stitches on a needle painting I decided to make another pillow top.  Using natural linen and wool threads this was fun and fast to work.  Here are pictures of the pillow tops for the Marie Antoinette tree.

Jacobean stylized flower motif.

Jacobean stylized flower motif.

If they don't get used in Marie's tree I think I can find a home for them : )  I highly recommend the book "The Margret Boyle's Book of Needle Art" for those interested in crewel work.  The book is only 160 pages so it does not go into great detail about any topic.  However what she does write about is clearly written and has many good suggestions and tips.  The book includes both canvas work and crewel embroidery.  The canvas section includes Florentine design and how to figure out the pattern repeats.  I would not suggest this book for someone just learning embroidery but the basics are included in the book.  There are several lovely projects in the book but only with brief instructions.  The project instructions include the colors and stitches to be used with referrals to the How To part of the book.  This is not a book for those who need lots of pictures to learn new techniques.  I plan on making several more projects from the book.