M is for ........

That other little Mountmellick piece I was working on.....
For my A~Z 'M' tag
There are very few stitches in embroidery that begin with the letter 'M'
so I decided to dedicate my tag this week to a particular type of embroidery,
Originating from the town of Mountmellick in Ireland, which is traditionally worked in white.
I designed my own little piece
 Mung Moth

The stitches are worked using 4 different thicknesses of mat cotton threads on a soft sheen fabric called 'Jean' which is as it suggests like jeans, a close woven twill fabric.

Stitches used include satin, stem, whipped back and stem, french knots, overcast, and split stitch but there is also a specific Mountmellick stitch

shown here along the top wing sections
I was introduced to Mountmellick through one of Embroiders Guild groups that I attend
 and have recently completed the piece that I worked on at meetings there.
if you missed my post about it you can see it  here

If you want to read more about the origins of Mountmellick embroidery then there is more here

Mountmellick Framed

I finished my Mountmellick piece that I was working on with Airdrie Branch EG,

and finally I got around to washing, damp stretching it and framing it up so here it is.

  I'm quite pleased with how its turned out

I did enjoy sometimes it was heavy going with the thick threads through the tightly woven fabric but the effect is lovely.
I did take some pictures as I progressed but forgot to do a post on them so here are some closer views

 a darker picture to show the texture.
This pattern was designed by Katie Pirson and featured in issue 68 of Stitch EG magazine

I'm working on another little Mountmellick piece,
this time my own design which I will show soon x

Mountmellick

This is my little piece of Mountmellick that my sister Theresa and I are working on with EG Airdrie branch.

New work to both of us, the design is from a copy of Stitch magazine. We were both drawn to the design because it is quite open and light in pattern compared to some of the other designs we could have chosen from various books and also because we like toadstools, especially Theresa, who is drawn to all things 'Fairy' !

The design is by Katie Pirson of 'What Katie Threads Next'

As many of the women in the group have already work on a Mountmellick piece they had some supplies so we bought some Mountmellick thread which comes in a mat finish and 'Jean' fabric which is white twill weight with a slight sheen to it. However there are 4 different widths of thread and there was only the two thicker ones left, I've had to order the 2 thinner widths, this is where we have both got to using the No 3 & 4 and now patiently waiting on our thread arriving.

We have both got other projects to be working on though,
 I'm still working on my little tags and 

there is our 'House' for Fife branch which I've almost done,
Theresa beat me to it on that she finished hers last week.