[MR] Crosstitch . . . Period?

[Betty Eyer]

Yes it's period but not as common as in modern
embroidery.

Check out this book: Embroideries and samplers from
Islamic Egypt, Marianne Ellis, ISBN 1-85444-135-3. 
This book is readily available from sources like
amazon.com.  The samples are almost all within the SCA
period, they include good, clear information about how
they were done.   Quite a few are done on loose weave
linen so it is easy to see even from the photos, how
they were done.  

Some of them were created for trade with Europe and
some of the styles are quite European in look.  There
are some very nice countercharged styles that look
really European along with the obviously islamic
caligraphy styles.  Also, southern italian work of the
period (perugia and assisi "towels", for instance)
often copied Islamic trade embroidery stitch by
stitch.  There are a few samples of cross stitch in
this book.  Almost all af the "samplers" have cross
stitch in them.  

The tricky bit is that there are also patterns that
LOOK like modern cross stitch but they are actually
done with other techniques such as laid and couched
stitches or overlaid rows of herringbone stitch.  This
includes the piece on the front cover.  

So you could certainly produce a period LOOKING piece
with cross stitch even if you were not slavishly
reproducing a primary source.  And I personally would
give a less critical eye to something like an
officer's badge, which is an artificial SCA
construction to start with. 

However, if I were judging an A&S entry that used
cross stitch, I would hope that the documentation
provided indicated that using the stitch was
appropriate to the time and place of the entry.

Does that help or did I make it more confusing?


--- "Judee St.Clair" <cedarfox at msn.com> wrote:
> Hello, I am Richikha, of the Canton of Hawkwood, and
> am very new.
> 
> I am curious, though -- I was given to understand
> that cross-stitch (as we now it in these modern
> times) is not Period. do I misunderstand?
> 
> Richikha
> 
> Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 13:14:10 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Lady Magy Freyser <clairjamie at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [MR] Need crosstitch patterns for badges
> please
> To: Keep <keep at windmastershill.org>, Atlantia
> <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
> Message-ID:
> <20031007201410.80216.qmail at web11006.mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> I asked about two years ago for cross stitch
> patterns for officer badges
> (specifically A&S most of all) and never recieved
> anything and the links
> that I found were broken or non-existent.
> 
> If anyone has a pattern for this, I would greatly
> appreciate you
> contacting me privately (or on the list, but don't
> want to clutter
> things). 
> 
> Thank you so much for your help!
> Magy
>
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=====
Magdalena de Hazebrouck-Purpure, a fess fusilly argent between three torches or. 
"There are two types of music.  The Blues and Zippity Doo Dah." Townes Van Zandt

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