Advent Calendar

The garden angel was designed by Gudrun Hartwig. She saw pictures of the many different flowers and flower arrangements in my garden and transferred these impressions into the design.

The design measures about 16 cm X 23 cm. It was stitched on handwoven linen with an 18/cm thread count. I worked this special design in the style of early Schwalm whitework using Stem stitches for the outlines and

Satin stitches, Back stitches, and French Knots to fill the shapes.

After boiling and carefully ironing on a soft pad, the embroidery came out very well.

But I decided to underlay it with fleece

and to quilt it at some sections of the outlines.

Framed without glass it reminds me a little bit of the art by KLIMT.

Because of the great interest in angel motifs, I will soon issue a collection of samples. This design will also be among them.

Today babushka angels welcome you.

Visitors of my exhibitions already know these angels from my table runner. Three angels (the same motif in two different sizes) were arranged in a group.
The design measures about 32 cm X 18.5 cm. It was stitched on handwoven linen with a 22/cm thread count.

The contrast of dense and more open patterns makes the figures interesting.

The short angel has the following filling patterns:
Hair: Net (Limetrosen I)
Bodice: Rose stitches in a grid cut 1, leave 2
Sleeves: Narrow Pearl pattern (Wickelstiche)
Wings: Cone (Limetrosen I)

Skirt: Little Stars and Rose stitches – pattern 13 (Stars)
Skirt edge: Rose stitches (Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework and Lesson #2)

The tall angel has the following filling patterns:
Hair: High and Low – simple (Limetrosen I)
Bodice: single Satin stitch bars (Wickelstiche)
Sleeves: Diagonal Cross filling stitch (Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework and Lesson #2)
Wings: Scales (Limetrosen I)

Skirt: Double Satin stitch bars and Little Stars Pattern 14 (Stars)

Skirt edge: always alternating single and double Satin stitch bars (Wickelstiche)

This pretty design is available pre-transferred on 16 threads/cm linen cut to measure 55 cm X 120 cm. The price is €28.50 (includes 19 % sales tax) plus shipping, or €23.95 plus shipping for customers outside the EU.

Please email me with your request.

Trombone playing angels float around the center of a square doily.

The finished doily measures about 37 cm X 37 cm. It was stitched on Weddigen linen with a 13.5/cm thread count.

Next year I will share tips for creating the openwork grid in the necessary size on my blog.

Into the openwork grid the angel motifs were embroidered with needle-weaving stitches.

One can work the border design using only the angel motif, or stars can be added as complementary embellishment; they can be worked either in the corners or in the corners and between the angels.

The stars should be worked either completely with Rose stitches or with a combination of Rose stitches and needle-weaving stitches as seen here.

When laid on a contrasting ground, this pattern looks especially noble.

The delicate little angel stands alone.

The design measures about 8.5 cm X 8.5 cm. It was stitched on Weddigen linen with a 13.5/cm thread count.

Because of its balanced and compact size it would be suitable and easy to mount in an embroidery hoop as seen with the mischievous angel. A few of those mounted pieces can create a beautiful decoration, as the example (unfortunately not with angels) sent from Tomoka Masuki from Japan shows.

But my delicate angel was made to be cut out.

The hair was stitched with 2 strands of 6-ply stranded cotton. Because of the densely worked stitches in different directions, one need not worry about the fabric fraying when cutting out the angel.

I looked for delicate filling patterns to embroider the delicate angel. So I worked Diagonal Cross Filling – French Variation–“half” (Openwork Pattern Samplers) for filling the wings and

Diagonal Cross Filling – French Variation (Openwork Pattern Samplers) for filling the dress. Although both stitches look very different, they are very pretty together.

Boiled, starched, ironed, and cut out, the delicate angel would be a nice decoration for a festive table.

But I chose to use it as an ornament.

Angels with candles are the focus of this wreath designed for a tea cloth. The design is by Irmgard Mengel and was embroidered by Helga Schäfer.

The design has a diameter of about 55 cm and was stitched on linen with a 16/cm thread count.

The hairstyle and some other stitches were stitched with 2 strands of 6-ply stranded cotton (Anchor colour 874).

The angel on the straight of grain gets a dress filled with Double Back stitches (Openwork Pattern Samplers) in a grid cut 1, leave 3.

The angel on the bias gets a dress filled with Rose stitches (Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework) in a grid cut 1, leave 3.

The hems of the skirts are decorated with Herringbone, half-eyelet scallops, and Eyelash stitches.

The wings are filled with Plumage (Limetrosen I), and the collars are filled with Four-Sided stitches (Basic Principles of Schwalm Whitework).

The candles are filled with Honeycomb Darning stitches or with Satin stitches in a stair-step manner.

Some parts, such as the hands and the sleeve openings, remain unworked.

The fir branches are worked with Lazy Daisy stitches.

The hem was decorated with one row of Chain stitches on top of the bundles made by Antique hem stitches.

This beautiful wreath design is available pre-transferred on 16 threads/cm Weddigen linen cut to measure 90 cm X 90 cm. The price is €33.50 (includes 19 % sales tax) plus shipping, or €28.15 plus shipping for customers outside the EU.

Please email me with your request.