Katarzina's Wild Roses Needlebook

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During her reign, Princess Amber commissioned six pieces from me. I did five needlebooks and a thimble keeper for Her. This is my first piece of beaded embroidery, and my second needlebook. This needlebook was commissioned a gift to Viscountess Mistress Katarzina Porajski. It is based on the three roses on Mistress Katarzina's heraldic device, which can be seen here.

Before starting this piece, I did a practice piece so that I could learn the technique, and find out what I did and didn't want on the final piece. I did the embroidery on linen lined with muslin, and worked the material in a hoop. Once completed, I cut a piece of felt to the desired size, and stitched the embroidery and felt together to make a needlebook. I used beads along the outer edge for a bit of decoration, and two bits of ribbon so that the needlebook can be tied shut.

All of the beads employed here are glass. The roses are done in a transparent red silver-lined 11/0 bead. The roses are outlined in opaque blue 11/0 beads, and the background is opaque white 11/0 beads. It is all outlined in silver-lined blue bugle and Delica beads. The flower beads used on the edging are Czech pressed glass beads ordered from Fire Mountain Gems. The opaque dark blue beads are 11/0, while the transparent red silver-lined beads are size 8/0.

Being my first piece, I did the entire piece in the modern technique. I started with the red roses, and then filled in the white background. I stitched all of the beads on in a section, and then couched it down. I found that when I did it in this manner, it caused some bulging of the fabric. Although it still looked good, the piece bowed slightly. My second beaded embroidery piece would be the dragonfly, and I would experiment there as well to find out what works best for me.