Blackwork Turns Brown!

I’m not sure if I had ever expressed my passion to cross stitching, but if I hadn’t then here it is: I am very passionate about embroidery; cross-stitching in particular!

I’ve been doing embroidery for as long as I can remember (probably ever since I was allowed to use a needle and thread) and I had tried out many different styles.

I recently came across blackwork embroidery (commonly known as Spanish work), which is a form of embroidery using black thread on white or off-white fabric used in England from the time of Henry VIII. I had never done blackwork embroidery before, so I decided to give it a try and create a housewarming gift for our first visit to Zeid and Suzan’s (my in-laws) new home. The only hitch was that their house colours were brown and orange, so black wasn’t going to work well; therefore, I decided to turn my blackwork embroidery design to brownwork!

I chose a blackwork design by Liz Almond (her designs were featured in The World of Cross Stitching, Issue 164). I felt that the design worked well for a housewarming gift as I liked its oriental flare.

I embroidered on an off-white linen fabric using brown and orange DMC threads (I replaced Liz's black threads with brown, and her golden threads with orange). The colours turned out great!

After completing my piece, I selected my framing options; I chose an orange inside border (to bring out the colours more) and combined it with a textured brown wooden frame that worked out perfectly as a final result.

Gladly, the piece fit-in harmoniously with their house!