When I finished the first five classes of my RSN certificate Jacobean Crewelwork module, I thought I would take forever until my next (and final) three classes in February but now those classes are only 2 weeks away!

Fortunately, I can report that almost all areas are stitched and I just have to think about filling in some of the petals that are just outlines at the moment and adding some finishing stitches in other places. I would like to get most of those done in the two weeks that remain, however, I also would like the tutor’s opinion about which areas to fill in and which to leave blank and whether some other details are required to make my design better. So I am still in two minds about what things I still should do before going back.

Moreover, the tutors might find that I need to unstitch part of my design if it doesn’t meet RSN-standards so I will have to leave enough spare time in class in case that happens. Since I am actually over at Hampton Court for a week I do have the option of booking two extra classes should I need to, but I am hoping I don’t need to.

All in all, these will be quite nervous weeks getting ready for my next classes. I really don’t know what the tutors will think of my homework. I do like my design but I am always very critical of myself so I can also see its flaws. However, I also need to keep in mind that this is my first ever Jacobean Crewelwork project that I designed by myself so it can’t be perfect.

Moreover, my design has 28 (and counting) different kind of stitches in at the moment. I will probably never design another project with so many different kinds of stitches in again. I will just pick a stitch that would be best rather than one that I have not used yet. As the RSN certificate is a course they encourage you to use lots of different stitches to practice them. However, it does make the final design look busier than normal.

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I will, of course, keep you posted about my next classes at the RSN. However, that might just be on my return home as it is easier to post using my computer than it is using my Ipad. There will be regular updates on The Stitching Sheep’s social media accounts.

In case you are curious about the stitches I have used so far, this is the list:

  • Trellis (both of the big flowers and the butterfly)
  • Long & Short (the two long leaves in the centre of the design)
  • Laid work (underneath the trellis in the top flower)
  • Satin stitch (dark blue band on the left of the bottom flower)
  • French knots (light pink in bottom flower)
  • Block shading (small flower in the centre)
  • Raised fishbone (leaves of small flower in the centre)
  • Fly stitch (two smaller leaves in the centre)
  • Cretan (big leaf to the left of the top flower)
  • Whipped backstitch (3 petals to the right of top flower)
  • Raised stem stitch (red band in top flower)
  • Bullion knots (light blue in top flower, and body of butterfly)
  • Holbein stitch (left petal of top flower)
  • Fishbone stitch (large blue leaf above top flower)
  • Raised chain stitch (red band in bottom flower)
  • Stem stitch (big S-shape)
  • Backstitch (around the dark red leaf below bottom flower)
  • Van Dyke stitch (big red leaf below bottom flower)
  • Buttonhole stitch (light blue band in bottom flower and ‘house’ of snail)
  • Padded satin stitch (snail body)
  • Pearl stitch (pink spiral in bottom flower)
  • Whipped wheels (tiny flowers in the centre)
  • Coral stitch (vines in the centre of the design)
  • Portuguese knotted stem stitch (vines at the top and bottom of the design)
  • Palestrina stitch (vine to the left of bottom flower)
  • Quaker stitch (outline of butterfly)
  • Herringbone stitch (small light blue leaf above top flower)
  • Seeding stitch (in top right petal of top flower)
Posted by:Marlous

13 replies on “Progress on my RSN Certificate Crewelwork”

  1. It looks lovely! A fe more filling stitches and you are probably done. I found it hard to get all the required stitches in, and as you say, you are probably never again going to do a piece with so many different stitches. But I was told that repeating stitches was necessary as it’s too hard not to! Good luck! I think you will be fine with what you have done 😊

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      1. Look out for what we refer to as the “bathtub assessment”. It goes like this: “well done, you got this right, but this, this and this need improvement (and this is how), and this bit in particular is very good”!

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      2. I hadn’t heard that expression before! Learned something new today. 😃 I could cope with the kind of assessment! My PhD tutor usually started with: “the entire thing is rubbish”, but when he went through my text with me step by step all that was needed was a few minor revisions! But I felt a wreck after the word rubbish!

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      3. Your PhD supervisor clearly hadn’t learnt how to do an assessment without seriously depressing the student. And heaven knows, doing a PhD is quite hard enough without the supervisor adding to the horror!

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  3. That’s a lot of stitches. I hope you won’t have a lot to unpick. It would be very bad if you had to spend most your class unpicking things. Especially as you are traveling to the UK to take classes.

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    1. I know… I don’t think I made any big mistakes (stitch wise) but I am worried about thread-wear as Appleton wool frays really quickly. Hopefully it will all be alright in the end and maybe it is just me being over critical of myself and if there are any problems they will probably know some really good tricks to rectify things without having to unpick a lot.

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  4. We are our own worst critics. It looks beautiful to me. I particularly like Palestrina stitch and have not seen it before – so will look it up. Hope all goes well at your next visit to the RSN.

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    1. Thank you! I just realised I mixed two stitches up in my list, I will amend it! Sorry for any confusion! The one I called Palestrina is called portuguese knotted stem and vice versa. So I think the one you like is called Portuguese knotted stem. It was a really fun stitch to do, although a bit fiddly when stitching near areas I had already done! I think I ended up using two strands of wool at the same time, as the stitch-design was more noticeable than when using just one strand. The clearest instructions are in the anchor book of crewelwork embroidery stitches, or the Mary Corbet youtube video.

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