Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Hardanger Etui

I'm sorry I'm slowing down on posts. I have to get my camera out, and take some more pictures. I did find one picture in my files though, that I can talk about.


This is an etui (sewing box). The embroidered bands are to hold packets of needles and other notions, and the circle in the center is a pincushion for pins. The pattern for this etui is in "Fundamentals Made Fancy" by Janice Love. I was fortunate enough to take a Hardanger class with her (after I had made this) through my EGA guild, and I must say the class was more fun than the book, because Janice is very funny!


I was amazed by how little time this took to make. I really enjoyed it, and I think it is because the embroidery pieces are so (relatively) small. A large Hardanger mat or tablecloth can take months or even years, but this is like eating the center of Oreo cookies, you get to do the fun stitches without having to plow through the miles of Kloster blocks. The centers were so much fun! A couple of the names were "Greek Cross" and "Edelweis" and then there were tons of "Dove's eyes" and picots. The lacey edging didn't even take that long.

Hardanger Etui


The instructions were very clear for assembling the box and it turned out beautiful. My biggest regret is that the moire satin has faded badly on the outside, and has turned into a completely different color. I'll get a picture of that, too, when I get my camera out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really like the look of hardanger but have never been keen to try it -counted thread work drives me nuts. I like these little work boxes - and now I know what they are called too!