Stitch Explorer March challenge
Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 6:10AMThis month the challenge is to look at another embroidery style and push it into a direction that may not have been done before. At first glance Assisi embroidery appears to be a very conservative choice until you look at the dominant design element that drives its appeal. In this style the background of the design is filled with embroidery stitches and the main motif is left void. This is why it is also known as voided work and as silhouette embroidery.
January’s challenge was chicken scratch which has a dominant design element of pattern. Last month’s trellis stitch appeal is the design element of texture. This months challenge to look at Assisi which is a style of embroidery that is based on using both positive and negative space. Once you see this aspect of the style it can act as a springboard towards a very contemporary design. So the challenge is to use Assisi as inspiration for a small piece.
What we know as Assisi embroidery is a style that was revived early in the 20th century. Today Assisi is often worked in cross stitch outlined in either back stitch or double running stitch blue, green and red as traditional colors, but modern Assisi is stitched in any colour including variegated threads.
Originally this style of counted thread embroidery was named after a city in Italy. Jos Hendricks has developed a site on Assisi Embroidery which houses both patterns and information on the history of the style
For an informed article on traditional Assisi see Stalking the Wild Assisi by Kathryn Newell.
A very similar style called Reversa developed in Spain
To see more of this style there is a traditional chart provided by La Chatelaine Designs that is available and this page provides some free designs of Assisi style embroidery.
Also there is also this traditional pattern of an Assisi style rabbit.
A good few of my designs are actually based on the idea of filling the background with stitching while leaving the main motif blank just s you do in Assisi. In fact I got the idea after looking at Assisi. Here is an example.
Have fun with this months challenge. I know it is more of a design challenge but last month was a technical challenge and we have to have variety!
A Flickr Group
I have established a Flickr group for those who want to use it. The name is Stitchexplorer
How to participate in the stitch explorer challenge
Stitch some samples that push this embroidery style
Blog it or put images somewhere online where people can see them. If you use flickr send them to the Stitchexplorer group
Come back to this post and leave a comment with your web address in it so that people can visit and see what you have done.
Note if when you leave a comment, if you fill in the form with your URL, it means that when people click on your name they will be taken to your blog.
The full guidelines for the challenge are here and yesterday I posted links to various places online where you see what people did with last months challenge
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Reader Comments (32)
I absolutely love the crab. The fact that he is outlined while the rest is coloured fill stitches is quite effective in this case!
I love the french knot and it looks lovely in the middle of a lace flower.
Sharon -- here is the link to the Voided Work section of my website. It has history, the voided rabbit and a number of historical patterns of voided work. Hope it helps.
http://www.bayrose.org/AandS/Voided_Work.html
Kathryn Newell's article is also part of the West Kingdom Needleworkers Guild site along with all of the pics of her charts. http://www.bayrose.org/wkneedle/Articles/assisi.html
Hi Sharon,
I made a beginning at exploring Assisi embroidery here.
I love seeing your work using the concept of Assisi embroidery. Thank you for all the references to more about this type of embroidery.
Robin/Sabrina I wish I had thought of your article before as it is very good and I was aware it I had just forgotten it. So thanks very much for reminding me of this resource and and sorry to have missed it.
I am so looking forward to taking your crazy quilting class but I am most interested in the trellis stitch. I love the sculpturability of this stitch. Do you teach a class in this or is there a tutorial available. I have a couple of stitch books but they show the trellis stitch in a much more flatten form.
Please let me know if there is a tutorial about this stitch.
Sincerely,
Jan MacKay
Hi Sharon, Thanks for your embroidery challenge, I started late on the january challenge, I enjoyed working on chicken scratch.The picture is on the fickr group and the details are on my blog- www.jizee6687.wordpress.com
A month will be not enough time to explore all my ideas! I did some Assisi embroidery earlier, both traditional and not so traditional. But I never tried to use long stitch, so I have started my Assisi work of this month in long stitch. No picture yet, it is not finished. The reason I am posting nevertheless, is that I found useful instructions for long stitch here: http://www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2008/12/assisi-stag-stitchin.html .
Jan
you asked if there was a tutorial available for trellis stitch. There is a link on February challenge post to 2 different very good tutorials.
If ever you are stuck for something links to each months challenge is listed on the stitch explorer 2009 guidelines page
http://www.pintangle.com/community-challenges/2008/12/11/stitch-explorer-2009.html
As say just follow the links from the February post
http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2009/2/14/stitch-explorer-2009-february.html
Also there is a category in this blog - called stitch explorer which would take you there too. The category appears just under the title - click it and you will see all related posts and in the side bar under navigation click on categories and you will find all categories in this blog.
Also you will find links to challenges in general under the community challenge tab at the top.
I hope all this helps
Hi Sharon, i have started working on this stitch . the details are on my blog-
www.jizee6687.wordpress.com
My first exercise in Assisi is finished, see my blog and the flickr group. Enough ideas left to keep me busy for at least a month. Assisi is lovely, but very timeconsuming.
This is a lovely technique to work on. I'm working on my second project now to explore Assisi. I have already some ideas to push this in my own direction too. I write about it on my blog:
http://fat-quarter.blogspot.com/search/label/Stitch%20Explorer%202009
I've posted a piece done in my version of Assisi. It's a nice way to stitch.
http://focus-on-fiber.blogspot.com
SAndy
Here is the link to my blog entry for my assisi project:
http://www.theflossbox.com/blog/march2009/assisi-embroidery
This turned out to be a fun style. I also sent the picture to the flickr group.
At the moment I am working on an Assisi bike. You can follow my progress on my blog.
But today I added four ATCs to the Flickr Stitch Explorer group. I did not stitch them especially for this challenge, but three of the four cards are done in a kind of Assisi-technique. I added the fourth one too, because it is part of the series.
Here's my attempt at Assisi. Really enjoyed the challenge this month and there have been some great examples!
My first attempt at Assisi is at
http://snowdays.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/assisi-oops/
Thanks for selecting this for this month's challenge.
Hi - my version can be found on http://jinny-quodlibet.blogspot.com/2009/04/stitch-explorer-march.html . Thanks for this challenge, it is doing me good to do more handstitching.
Hi Sharon,
I have done a panther in Assisi and it's on my blog. It's not on counted thread fabric, so hope it's still considered Assisi. This has been really fun. I regret not trying trellis stitch last month, so tried it on this piece. Another great stitch you've introduced to us. Thanks!
Lin Moon
Some Assisi explorations. I like this challenge a lot. Thanks Sharon.
I have posted my assissi patterns on fickr group and the details on my blog-www.jizee6687.wordpress.com
I've killed 2 birds with one stone! My March Assisi embroidery is finished (almost) and it doubles as my October entry for the TIF challenge. Not quite done, but I wanted to get it posted before we go on vacation Monday. You might also lke to look at my Nov. TIF. I think it has some unique seam treatments all made of letters. Yes, I will finish the TIF someday. LOL
www.flickr.com/photos/stitchintime
Sharon
While I have managed the challenge for the previous 2 months this one was irresistable - I enjoyed it so much - thankyou. While I am not quitefinished the work I have done is on my blog at http://maggies-textiles.blogspot.com
My Assisi work is finished and on my blog http://greasyminginc.blogspot.com
I know I'm late, and like always not finished, but I did put some thought into this challenge. I really had problems designing this time, but finally started stitching today.
Considerations about designing for assisi work and the beginnings of my own design
Putting the design on fabric, and a bit of stitching
Here is my "Assisi" embroidery for March. It didn't work out as I expected, but it was an interesting experiment. Thanks for doing this challenge, Sharon. I am certainly trying new things.
Valerie L http://www.flickr.com/photos/vallor/
Hi Sharon
I started to experiment with assissi on the embellisher machine, but I got carried away and made something completely different! I've put it on my blog:
http://smockery.blogspot.com
Although I am busy with the April challenge, I also designed recently a set of numbers combing blackwork and Assisi. I publish the charts on my blog, and a stitched example (for a 59th birthday) is posted in the Flickr Stitch Explorer group.
I think this could be considered Assisi: http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/under-the-seafabric-postcards?context=latest
Dakotah
Hi Sharon,
I recall a while back, I believe it was here, that someone had created beautiful little boxes made from recycled mint tins. I have searched everywhere and I cant find it. Do you recall this? If you do, can you please direct me where to go.My dear sweet husband has been saving tins for me and I now have about 20 and I would like to create something pretty like the ones I saw.
Jan
Hi Jan
You did not leave me your email address so I could contact you (when you fill out the comment form the email stays private but it allows me to write if need be but is is not published publicly)
Anyway lots of people decorate Altoid tins but I have not ever blogged one I made so I think you must be muddling me with someone else. Earlier this year CQ Online has an decorated altoid tin in the readers showcase.
I did a quick search on google using the terms decorate "Altoid tin" and loads of results came up. You could try that if you don't remember which site you saw it on.
Thanks Sharon. I'm sorry I forgot the email. I will check out the google search.
Jan