crewel again

I'm "designing" a crewel project for my EGA chapter. They asked for someone to teach such a class and when no one else volunteered, I said I'd do it. Then, we went looking at commercial kits and discovered they were too large and too expensive for this type of meeting-night project--if they were even crewel.

I learned that a whole lot of what is advertised as crewel isn't (like 75% not in some places on-line!). It's embroidery with floss. I have no idea why they don't just call it that. Crewel is done with crewel wool. If it's not done with crewel wool, at least in my definition, it's embroidery or surface embroidery or whatever, just not crewel. [rant over.]

So I decided to develop my own small project. I'm pretty sure I know what it will be (at this point it could change but for now I'm rather pleased with the idea I have) and I have adapted a design from one of my books to use, traced it to size, and am ready to go. As I was doing this I was also calculating fabric requirements, finishing supplies, and other materials to come up with a kit cost.

I won't be teaching until some time 2010, but I need a model by December! Yikes! (I won't show the whole project until it's made public in January, but I hope to share bits here as I work.)

So I got out my crewel case. I found tracing paper, fabrics, a couple of small books, two Judy Jeroy EGA group correspondence course books, and a pile of Appleton Crewel Wool Threads.

So I spent a couple of evenings this week playing with threads! I sorted through them and cataloged what I have on some lovely inventory pages by Needle Artworks, Inc. It may look like a lot of thread but I have just a fraction of the colors Appleton offers. It's still in a jumble in the case but at least now I know what's there.
My thread cards for Appleton came in handy to label threads missing their tags. This was a great investment. Besides I just love to open the box and see all the colors.And, in the process, I found another ufo. These were sample designs from one of the Judy Jeroy courses, to use to practice stitches. The reason this was set aside was that I wasn't thinking when I traced the designs. I should have planned better and spaced them out more so that I could use them for something when they were done. I'm not sure if I'll finish this one or not. Usually if I take the time to do practice pieces (I tend to just skip over that part and move on to the "real" piece), I make them up into something (nametag, ornament, boxtop).

I wonder if I could use the rest of the back of the fabric for something else--linen twill is expensive and I hate to waste a piece. I'll have to look at it this weekend and see.