Lincolnshire Textiles / Lincolnshire Poacher

I’d almost finished my “Lincolnshire Poacher” piece last week before our Ukrainian “Sunflowers” arrived. In fact on Friday morning I started the last bit, the mounting, so I could blog about it, but things went slightly awry, so in the end I didn’t even get to do my blog until Monday!

Earlier in the week I started the “cheese-making”, using the template that I’d cut to the right size to cut a piece of wool / cotton wadding, which was a scrap left over from my stained glass window quilt, then a slightly larger piece of the yellow to cover it. I loosely tacked it through the wadding, making sure not to go through to the right side.

Just checking the scale.

I then added the “rind” with the textured stretchy fabric, after working out where it needed to go, and putting a long line of thread to define the wedge.

The “cheese” was attached with tiny stitching.

The grapes were stitched in the same way over the wadding, and placed in front of the cheese; no photo of this stage.

Then, after trying various rigid circular things (a DVD was not quite big enough, the lettering touched the edge), a lid off the large bucket of Lidl Greek yogurt was found to be the perfect size. DVDs filled the inside, to raise it level with the top. Next I did running stitches around the edge of the circle to gather it up, and the blue soluble pen was removed.

The “plate of cheese, lettuce and grapes” ready to attach to the 6 inch piece of mount board.

The piece of calico had a really deep crease that wouldn’t iron out, so I blocked it.

A piece of felt was stuck to the mount board to soften it all, and all set to go last Friday morning. We knew the “Sunflowers” were due to dock at Dover at 1 o’clock lunchtime, so there was time to finish the mounting and do my blog before the last-minute preparations for when they arrived.

I attached the “plate” to the backing fabric, then put a couple of pins to hold it in place, even having remembered to sign it with my logo initials.

I started mitreing the corners, and had almost finished the fourth one, feeling quite proud of myself, when I suddenly realised that the felt was facing me, not softening the right side. I could hear my mum’s voice in my head saying “pride comes before a fall”.

And having looked at it before I took it apart again, I realised the lettering was closer to the edge on one side, so laced across the back with it still partly attached to the backing fabric.

I then set to re-mounting it, mitred corners, lacing across the back, thinking I was still alright for time, called Colin through to see if it looked OK….. only for him to say the whole thing looked wrong and the lettering was in the wrong place.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked properly. I hadn’t re-checked the alignment after lacing the back of the “plate” and it had moved on the few stitches holding it down. More haste less speed, another of my mum’s favourite quotes to me.

So, off it came again. Breathe, calm down and slow down. Finally, third time lucky and it was done. It just needed a felt backing to cover the lacing, which I cut ready. But by now I had not only run out of patience, but also of time to do my blog.

I ended up quietly stitching it on once I’d got to the meeting on Saturday morning, and it was handed in and positioned amongst the rest of the pieces. Four more are yet to be added, but all is in hand.

I’ve also handed in my finished shard, so all is ready for the exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral.

Lincolnshire Textiles

Lincolnshire Textiles are having an exhibition in the Chapter House at Lincoln Cathedral at the end of August, and the banner they have used needed updating to say “Lincolnshire Textiles” rather than “Lincoln Embroiderers Guild”. To go alongside this, the newer members have been asked to do a 6-inch square with something that represents some aspect of the county of Lincolnshire. The obvious landmarks have already been done.

What struck me as missing was Lincolnshire Poacher cheese. I’ve had a few ideas, but have finally got to roughing things out when I was on library duty this week. I started with trying to use Publisher on the computer, which I found extremely frustrating, because it has changed so much since I used it years ago. In the end I managed to get the lettering going round in two semi-circles, which at least gave me an idea of placing the letters. I did a couple of quick sketches of wedges of cheese. I’d cut the one out before I photographed the rough sheet (see below, toward the end).

I ended up drawing a couple of circles and hand-sketching the letters, then I altered the placing slightly when I went over them in permanent marker.

I could then trace them through on to the fabric with water soluble pen. It was then hooped up and the Quaker Stitch started, a cross between backstitch and stem stitch that is ideal for lettering, I was told.

I used a blue perlé 8 to give a fairly bold line. It is also a relatively quick stitch to do.

I used the soldering iron to cut out from organza some “lettuce leaves” to serve with my cheese.

The rest of the letters were stitched.

The paper pattern was cut down to scale for the wedge of cheese, and flipped to face the other way.

I’ve found fabric for the cheese, and one the perfect texture for the rind.

I also had a recollection of doing grapes for a travelling book several years ago, no idea whose it was or what the theme was! Does it look familiar to anyone? I thought it might give me some ideas how to tackle a few grapes.

I’ve also found some potential grape-coloured fabric. This is as far as I’ve got so far, but there’s another week before it needs to be handed in.