I made this needlecase as a thank-you present to Lady Katherine de Langelei in thanks for making me my first functional cold-weather outfit plus cloak, all of which I still wear to this day. In doing so she also provided me with my first opportunity for a clothing embroidery project, a Celtic tunic. All supplies for this project came from a kit the Needleworkers Guild put out. This kit included white evenweave linen, black DMC cotton #310, white felt, and a needle. I decided to do a collection of blackwork fill patterns found in Lynn Skinner’s two collections of blackwork patterns. On one side I did a detached food sampler – barley, radishes, nuts, and what I believe are strawberries. On the other side I did attached geometric patterns with a diagonal theme.

I marked the quarters on both sides of the case, executed all the fills then outlined the sections in stem stitch. The felt was then blanket-stitched over the back of the linen, which had been folded under along the edges of the embroidery. I also sewed in black trim as the ties, which Katherine informs me aren’t the best for tying. I am always experimenting for better ways to do things, so this is good to know. Looking on the inside, I was surprised to see that I had done the blanket-stitching backwards, putting the long lines on the interior of the felt instead of on the exterior along the edge. I am not entirely sure how I managed that, but am not surprised – blanket-stitch, while easy enough once going, is something I have to re-wrap my head around every time I attempt it. Considering I made this early in my stitching career, I can forgive myself this slip.

According to Katherine, I presented her with the needlecase at 12 th Night 2003. I will have to rely on her memory for this, as I unfortunately do not remember the details of my presenting it to her.

The pictures on this page were taken by myself on 9/30/06.