A & S Project for Pennsic

It has been 3 months since I began spinning thread for the embroidered pillow which is to be a gift to the King and Queen of the Midrealm from the King and Queen of the East. Today I finished. I am very happy with how it came out. Here are a couple of detail pictures:

I like the way the chain stitches and French knots add texture.

The border was adapted from a mosaic design in the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

Here is the finished pillow:

All of the thread is my handspun wool. It is embroidered on a linen ground.

What I learned:

• Gotland wool does not make good embroidery thread. That was all I had in purple, so I tried it. It spins a beautiful thin thread, but it does not pull nicely through the fabric. It tended to tangle and/or pull apart. Therefore, there is less purple in the piece than I originally intended. It was too frustrating to work with.