Maragret Anne's Gold Rose Needlebook 

For larger pictures, please click on the photos.

During her first reign, Princess Caitriona commissioned six pieces from me. I did five needlebooks and a thimble keeper for Her. This needlebook was given as a gift to Mistress Margaret Anne of Somerset. It is based on the stylized rose on Mistress Margaret Anne's heraldic device, which can be seen here. This is my fourth needlebook, and my third piece of beaded embroidery.

I did the embroidery on linen lined with muslin, and worked the material on a slate frame. Once completed, I cut a piece of felt to the desired size, and stitch the embroidery and felt together to make a needlebook. I use beads along the outer edge for a bit of decoration, and two bits of ribbon so that the needlebook can be tied shut.

The gold beads are just that, 22K gold. The gold beads are also charlottes, which means that they're faceted, but usually only on one side. The facets help to give a little bit more sparkle. Although I like the look of the charlottes, the only reason that I use the gold charlottes is because I can't find solid gold beads without the facets. The black beads are opaque glass, and the green beads are translucent glass. The beads used on the edging are all glass beads. The black beads are 11/0, while the gold and green beads are size 8/0.

For this embroidery, I decided upon a mixture of techniques. The rose was completed in the modern technique, laying down 3-6 beads at a time. The background was done in the medieval technique, usually laying down one or two rows at a time, and couching the beads down. I worked the rose first, and then followed by filling in the background.

I also had buckling here on the gold rose as I had on the red roses piece, where I had done the modern technique. After much experimenting, I discovered that it had to do with the couching of the beads. After laying down the beads, when I stitched them to the fabric, I wasn't estimating enough room for the couching threads, and it was tightening up the beads to the point of buckling. My next piece of beaded embroidery, not part of this series, would be a needlebook worked for the Queen.