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Roz Watnemo, this month's featured designer, is also the guest teacher for our Online Class Horizons - a Hardanger embroidery, Part I Click on the picture for a larger sample   Roz Watnemo, this month's featured designer, is also the guest teacher for our Online Class, presented in two parts. Her new pattern, Horizons, an Hardanger embroidery, was created expressly for Caron website visitors. Roz has executed Horizons in two completely different color variations resulting in a design which changes dramatically in mood and temperament depending on the materials used. Roz explains: "The combination of fabric and thread make such a difference to the finished product and the `look.'" Done on Powder Blue Janina with Pebbles Watercolours, the design has a masculine tone which is further enhanced by a blue/grey suede mat and frosted pewter frame. Employing Sandstone Watercolours on a cream ground, "Horizons" takes on a more delicate and typically feminine air, perfect to embellish a jewelry box. Roz voices her motivation for showing these two diverse alternatives and their effects: "I hope people will look at any piece of Hardanger in any of the books, and consider working them with Watercolours and Wildflowers... Impressions is another fiber that works well for Hardanger embroidery. I have worked a rather large framed design with Impressions and found it so soft and beautiful to work with... That is the exciting part of being a little creative and brave." If you have a specific mood you would like to achieve, feel free to substitute any Watercolours and Wildflowers threads for the ones specified. As Roz suggests, being creative with your stitching makes it that much more exciting!   Instructions Design size: 5" square on 22 count Ivory Janina by Zweigart Materials for box insert: 10" x 10" Ivory Janina by Zweigart, 22 count 1 skein each Caron Watercolours and Wildflowers, color 001 - Sandstone 1 Tapestry Needle size 24 Sharp, fine pointed embroidery scissors Note: The design chart for Horizons shows the central motif with a border. Only the central motif is used to create the piece as shown stitched and inserted into the box. If you desire to make the embroidery including the border design as shown in the chart, start with a 14" x 14" piece of the Ivory Janina. Part II of this class, on the May website will continue with the border motifs.     Click here for full size Chart *Working Instructions: Fold the fabric in half both ways to find the center point. Count two threads to the right and 34 threads up to begin the first satin stitch block, using one strand of Watercolours (See arrow on chart). *Follow the chart and work all the satin stitch blocks and all the solid satin stitch motifs using one strand of Watercolours. *Satin Stitch: The satin stitch, which is worked with the Watercolours thread, is the basic foundation of Hardanger embroidery. It can form many different motifs, but its basic function is in the satin stitch block. Each block consists of five stitches and each of those stitches covers four threads of fabric. Beginning with the first block (1a), notice that the needle will usually be working at an angle, but the stitch must always run straight with the threads of the fabric. On the fifth stitch of the first block, pivot in the corner hole (1b) and bring the needle up four threads away. Then return to the corner hole (1c) and once again complete the satin stitches. The second type of corner (1d) shows the needle coming up in the same hole before beginning block 3. Repeat from (1a) until the desired number of satin stitch blocks has been completed. Remember to check the work for any split threads or missed holes, that the stitches run straight with the threads of the fabric and that two stitches meet in every corner hole.   *Cutting: Before doing any cutwork, check the satin stitches again to be certain there are no mistakes. Corresponding blocks on opposite sides of the pattern should be worked around the same four threads. Four threads of fabric will be cut across the end of the satin stitches as shown (2a); never cut parallel to a satin stitch. Always keeping the satin stitches to the right of the scissors (if you are right handed), insert the tip of the scissors into the end hole and bring it out at the corner hole. Check to be sure you have picked up four threads of fabric. Carefully snip as close to the satin stitch as possible without cutting the Watercolours thread. Continue around the pattern until all appropriate areas have been cut (2a). Then draw out all loose threads (2b). The blocks on opposite sides of a pattern must correspond since the four threads cut on one side must be the same four cut on the opposite side in order to be drawn out.     *Use one strand of Wildflowers for weaving and webs. For the outer row, weave three and one half bars and insert the web before weaving the last half of the fourth bar. In the center design, weave the bars in a stair-step pattern, inserting webs as you get half way through the fourth bar that completes the square where a web is inserted. *Weaving: After completing the cutting, there will be a network of threads left, all in groups of four. These will be wrapped or woven into bars with the Wildflowers thread. Secure the end of the threads into the satin stitches on the back of the fabric and bring the needle to the right side of the fabric through the middle of the four threads. Bring the needle around the threads on one side and then back to the middle (3a). Repeat on the opposite side (3b). Continue weaving in a figure- eight pattern until the entire bar is filled. It is extremely important that the weaving be very tight and even; therefore, pull each stitch firmly before continuing. When one bar is complete, cross over to the next bar by bringing the needle from the far side of the completed bar up into the center of the next bar (3c). This will leave a small crossover thread on the back of the work.       Click here for Part I, Page 2 of instructions and diagrams Click here for Part II General instructions are taken from Beginner's Charted Hardanger Embroidery, copyright 1980, by Susan L. Meier and Rosalyn K. Watnemo. Rosalyn Watnemo's designs are available from Nordic Needle at: 1314 Gateway Drive, Fargo, ND 58103 Phone: (701) 235-5231 and (800) 433-4321 Fax: (701) 235-0952 E mail: needle@corpcomm.net Website: http://www.nordicneedle.com

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