Contemporary Lace         Men n’ Lace               Needle Tatting   

Whole Cloth Quilting        Whitework Drawn/ Pulled Thread Bibliography                                      

© Julian Jefferson, MarGorsson 27/08/2010          Contact         Home

In the 16th century embroiderer’s were regarded as being of equal importance as other craft guilds. In Margaret Swain’s book ‘Scottish Embroidery: Medieval to Modern’ she refers to John Young as embroiderer to James V (of Scotland). Mary Queen of Scots had two professional male embroiderers: Ninian Miller and Pierre Oudry. During Mary’s imprisonment at the Castle of Lochleven she requested for her embroiderer, at the time Pierre Oudry, along with other servants, a request that was refused.

William Beatoun, the King’s embroiderer in Scotland did not follow his monarch, James I of England and VI of Scotland, when James moved to London. At the same time Edinburgh had a number of professional embroiderers: James and William Whyte; Alexander Barnes and Hew Tod.

In 1782, Luigi Ruffini, a professional embroiderer from Piedmont in northern Italy came to Edinburgh to set a workshop for the production of embroidered muslin especially that known as Dresden work and tambouring.

The Georgian/ Victorian periods saw a resurgence in interest in these techniques across Europe including:

1. •Scotland: Ayrshire Whitework 
   

2. •Denmark: Hedebo
   

3. •Norway: Hardangersom (Hardanger)
   

4. •Germany: Saxon & Dresden work.
   

This interest was rekindled in the 20th Century by avid embroiderers and collectors such as Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray and Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth.

You can  see examples of these techniques at museums, and historic houses including:

1. •Hardanger Folk Museum
   

2. •Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen
   

3. •National Museum of Scotland
   

4. •Future Museum: South West Scotland
   

5. •Glasgow Museums
   

6. •Kay-Shuttleworth Collection, Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire
   

7. •Blair Castle, Perthshire, Scotland
   

I have also compiled a bibliography of books that I have useful.

You may also find Men n’ Stitch interesting.

The contemporary example at the top of this page bullion and French knots give texture along with stem, blanket stitches and eyelets. It veers away from the classic tradition in that off white threads were used.

You sometimes find pulled/drawn thread embroidery combined with corded quilting. As with the whole cloth quilt my interest comes from the exciting textural effect of the stitches on a monochrome background.

Whitework and Pulled/ Drawn Thread Embroidery