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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 fifth needlebook, and my fourth attempt at blackwork. This particular needlebook was commissioned for Lady Bianca Rose Byrnes. It is based on the raven on her heraldic device, which can be seen here.
For more information about the history of Blackwork, see the article from the Skinner Sisters. The Needleworkers Guild also has a great bibliography on the subject of Blackwork.
I did the piece on 40-count linen, using black Kreinik Soie d'Alger, and working with a hoop. I first sketched the raven onto the fabric, and then outlined the raven in stem stitch. I then used one of the filling stitches I found at Bronwen's Blackwork Library, a wonderful site on Blackwork, with patterns taken from period pieces. This particular filling pattern is found in two sources. The first source, dating 1585-1590, is found at the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (1929.152). It is a panel of white linen with black silk and gold thread embroidery. The second source is from an early 17th century sampler of multicolored silks on linen, and is found at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (516&A-1877).
Once I completed the embroidery, I cut a piece of felt to the desired size, and stitched the embroidery and felt together to make a needlebook. I used gold and amber glass beads along the outer edge for a bit of decoration, and two bits of ribbon so that the needlebook could be tied shut.
