Shops & Needlework Guilds Teaching Information
La Chatelaine Designs specializes in all forms of Counted Thread; Hardangersom, Sampler Making and Cross Stitch as well as Drawn & Pulled Thread. Fine Hand Sewing and Quilting are also incorporated into classes and designs. Classes are offered to the individual shop or needlework guild pertaining to their interests. Lectures are available for the above needle arts ~ a slide/lecture is available for Hardangersom.
Background:
Lucy Lyons Willis has been involved in the needlework industry for twenty years. She owned and operated the needlework shop Crossed Canoes in Alexandria, Virginia for ten years, closing in 1994 to design and teach exclusively. In 1986 Lucy organized, developed and presented a 30-minute television program entitled The History of Samplers for Alexandria Cable TV. She teaches for shops and needlework guilds nationwide and has taught for Just Cross Stitch Magazine and the former Spirit of Cross Stitch Seminars. Her designs have been published in numerous national magazines, and two of her designs (one of Ruskin Lace & one of Hardangersom) were featured on the covers of Sampler & Antique Magazine and Fancywork Magazine.
The owners of the Morrison House Hotel in historic Alexandria, Virginia commissioned Lucy to design and stitch a 19th century sampler for their fire screen to be displayed in the parlor in the hotel. This fire screen sampler is pictured in the book Tea~Time at the Inn "A Country Inn Cookbook" by Gail Greco and published by Rutledge Hill Press. The book features the Morrison House in Chapter One for Formal Afternoon Teas.
Lucy has studied Hardangersom extensively in Norway and was awarded in 1999 the Master's Level in Hardangersom within the Cultural Program sponsored by the Sons of Norway. She has studied at the Royal School of Needlework in Copenhagen, Denmark as well as researched needlework in Sweden and England. Her studies are "ongoing" at the Smithsonian and the Textile Museums in Washington, DC. Her formal education is a degree from the International Institute of Interior Design in Washington, DC., and she incorporates her knowledge and work background of interior design in her designs and classes.
Class Information:
Classes can be designed for individual shop or guild preferences as to specific needlework technique and length of class. Class kits contain all materials needed to complete the entire project. Students should feel free to mention if the count of fabric for a particular class is too small to see or not comfortable stitching upon.
The most important aspect of a class is to learn the technique and "enjoy" doing so!
Fabric can be changed to suit a student's personal preference if Lucy is notified well ahead of class.
For Complete Resume, Teaching Fees, Class Suggestions and Availability please contact Lucy at: LLWLaChatelaine@aol.com
The Tasseled Silk Embroidery Sampler (Blackwork)
(Beginner Level - Students need to have a knowledge of working on linen)
In Norway, Blackwork was also called "Silk Embroidery" because the embroidery thread was of silk! From the 15th century, the designs were embroidered with red, black or dark blue silk thread on linen fabric. During the next 200 years (1500-1700) Blackwork became an important part of folk embroidery and is used on several of Norway's national bunads (costumes) from the West Coast of Norway. Norwegian Blackwork consists of Holbein Stitches, Cross Stitches and the Darning Stitch.
This beautiful, hemstitched sampler incorporates all three of the above stitches as well as the "little known" Russian Wisdom Stitch used in the embroidery of the Volga and Ural regions of the former USSR. (Students have been known to be "awe struck" at the outcome of this stitch!) Motifs are from English, Norwegian and Swedish antique linens.
Sampler is stitched on linen count of choice with silk threads of black, red and blue.
One evening in a September I found myself walking down a quaint street in Oslo, Norway when I came upon a small antique shop that had already closed for the evening. In the window was a small, beautiful hardangersom doily! Excitedly I awaited the next open day (and my last day in Oslo before flying home) that I could enter the shop and purchase my find. Alas, standing in front of the shop the next day I found a closed sign. The owner of the shop next door told me that the woman who owned the antique shop had closed it because that day was her birthday, and of course would take the day off! Undaunted, I proceeded to chart the doily through the glass with onlookers chuckling as they passed by!
This doily (12" x 12") is stitched on white, 22ct Oslo Hardanger Cloth and incorporates the cable stitch, rosette, needle weaving with dove's eyes and buttonhole edging.
Note: The original doily had a filet-buttonhole edging ~
I have created a second doily with the filet edging for
an Intermediate Class.
