A Decade of Blackwork

Day 64: This is by no means the only blackwork I've done in the last ten years, but it has taken me a decade to complete the triptych. All are 12 x 12, and are mounted in identical frames. I put the final stitches on the Bird last night. It was a "bucket list" project I never seemed to get around to embroidering until now. The pattern is shown on the front cover of "Blackwork Embroidery" by Geddes and O'Neill, but I used different filling stitches throughout to personalize it. The Maze was made in 2016 from a "Stitch'nspiration" design, but again, I changed up the fillings. The Dresden Plate (from Buell's "Blackwork", also using different stitches in the blades) followed along in 2021. I stitched a pair of overlapping plates for a friend at some later date, and dubbed it "Eclipse." It felt good to put in those last few stitches last night, to have the Bird "done and dusted." I mounted it in the frame this morning, and now all three are hanging on the wall.