Victorian Berlin Wool-work

Wow, I see I last showed you this piece of petit point way back in August, well, I finished it this week. It is cross stitched onto 58 count silk gauze with Pipers Floss silk. The chart is a photograph of an original Victorian chart from Raffaella Serena's book Berlin Work, Samplers & Embroidery of the Nineteenth Century.

So, which one did I stitch?

You didn't have to wait too long to find out ;-)

I framed it in a 140 year old photo frame from the Ambrotype period of  photographing. Because I was a bit worried that the brass coating of the frame would damage the petit point, I lined the inside with paper. I mounted the petit point with scrap-booking tape onto a piece of plastic and then stitched right through all the layers with my sewing machine. Yes, I do weird things with my trusty 26 year old Singer and it has never given me any problems.

The outer frame is rounded, hollow and made from a very thin piece of brass, it was dented in one place when I bought it. So in order to prevent that from happening again I used some half round molding to fill the frame with.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

In its place in the dining room, for the photo I held it in place with double-sided tape, I still need to figure out what I am going to do with the back before I add some chains with which I want to hang it on the brass rod. The antique shelf was also bought at Lucy's.

Oh, yes, if you read the history of the Ambrotype in the link I gave you and was maybe wondering about the original photograph in the frame. You can still see the image of a young Victorian girl on the glass when you put it against a dark background. I bought the frame in 2011 at Lucy's Doll House in Camden, Maine on the way to Guild School in Castine.

Have a wonderful week

Elga