After two years the post I had been meaning to write is finally here! I hope you enjoy reading about how I have created my RSN diploma stumpwork project and what the assessors thought of it. Design From the moment I learned about the stumpwork module I knew which design I wanted to stitch. I had to do a Robin Hood and a Sir Guy of Gisborne. Not just any Robin Hood and Sir Guy but modelled after the characters from two TV series I have enjoyed watching. Robin Hood had to look like the title character from the STV Robin of Sherwood series from the 1980s as portrayed by Michael Praed and Sir Guy ..read more

Two weeks ago I received the results of my RSN Diploma Applique project: I got 92%!!! I am so extremely happy with this mark. I was not really looking forward to this technique as I didn’t know what to make of it, but I ended up enjoying it so much and I was really happy with the project I managed to create, so I am overjoyed the assessors are happy with it too. In this post, I will share my marks, the remarks of the assessors (italics in pink), and my reflection on them. As my project is still at Hampton Court Palace, or on its way via Royal Mail I am not able to share new and more detai ..read more

I can’t believe it has been over a year since my last post. Those of you who are following me on social media will know that I have not been idle. I just had so many large projects on the go, and I didn’t want to write really short posts with just a few progress photographs, that is what I like to use social media for. In addition, with Covid-19 and lockdown I have not really been in the mood for writing either, I just wanted to do practical things like stitching. Just before lockdown started in the Netherlands and in the UK I was over at the RSN at Hampton Court palace to start my second dipl ..read more

The week before last I received the results of my RSN Certificate Goldwork project: I got 84%!!! I am really happy with this mark, especially since I completed this project as a summer intensive and I already knew I was going to lose marks for some bits (paint lines, corners). In this post, I will share my marks, the remarks of the assessors (italics in pink), and my reflection on them. As my project is still at Hampton Court Palace I am not able to share new and more detailed photographs of my project but I will share some zooms of the original pictures. Please find details about the assessme ..read more

After having completed the Jacobean, Canvaswork and Silk Shading modules of the Royal School of Needlework Certificate Course I needed to complete the Goldwork module to complete the course. I chose to complete this module as a Summer Intensive as goldwork is quite delicate (especially the cutwork) and I didn’t want to have travel back and forth to the Netherlands with it. Last year I completed the canvaswork module as an intensive too and as it definitely is a lot of work to pack into 2 weeks I decided to give myself a head start by discussing my design during term time with the tutors so I c ..read more

When I first noticed Becky Hogg‘s animal kits in the RSN shop I fell in love with them instantly. I like the modern look and the way the metalwork embroidery has been used to create an instantly recognisable image of the animal. Becky has designed kits for 8 animals in this series: snow bunting, heron, barn owl, woodpecker, fox, squirrel, Badger and song thrush. I had a hard time choosing just one, but in the end, I settled on the fox as I thought it was the cutest. I bought the kit over a year ago, I think, but never got around to stitching it as my RSN certificate projects just took up so mu ..read more

Yesterday evening I received the results of my RSN Certificate Silk Shading project: I got 85%!!! I am really happy with this mark, especially since I have found this technique the most difficult so far. I am also really happy that I managed to get this mark without frogging and restitching a large number of times. There are only tiny bits that I restitched. In this post I will share my marks, the remarks of the assessors (italics in pink), and my reflection on them. As my project and accompanying documents are still at Hampton Court Palace I am not able to share new and more detailed photogra ..read more

I am sure I have told this story before but I got into needlecraft through my mum, who used to be an avid cross-stitcher. However, I kind of stuck to cross-stitch, but progressed to more complicated designs, as cross-stitch kits were the main (or actually only) type of embroidery kits sold in the Netherlands.  I never really saw any other types of embroidery until I visited the Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace for the first time in 2015. I spotted Lorna Bateman‘s stand displaying some very beautiful floral embroidery kits. However, they seemed far too complicated for me to hav ..read more

In October 2018 I started the third module of the Royal School of Needlework Certificate course. After previously having completed the Jacobean Crewelwork and Canvaswork module, it was now time to try my hand at Silk Shading. It was really difficult to pick a suitable photograph of a flower. The RSN brief sets many do’s and don’ts and even though I tried photographing flowers I could never get a suitable shot. As my dad knows a lot of flowers I asked him to help me out finding something suitable and he managed to find quite a few of which the anemone picture below was the best of all because o ..read more

I spotted Jenny Adin Christie‘s wren for the first time when Catherine of Hillview Embroidery and I attended a workshop by Jenny at Au ver à Soie in Paris during their Nuit de la Broderie in February 2018. The odd thing was that at first I never realised that it was embroidered when I saw a workshop advertised for it in the Beating around the Bush 2018 programme. I contacted Jenny about it and she sent me a catalogue with all of her kits. You can order the wren, the mossy hillock, the wooden base (with or without tape measure) separately to suit your budget and how you would like to display ..read more