merezhka embroidery update

Hi everyone,

Today I did the second and final part of the workshop at my local
guild in Merezhka embroidery. We learnt how to do the "bullion wrap"
style corner, and how to turn the corner.

I loved the course and am looking forward to finishing my piece and
putting it in our guild's exhibition later this year. However, I
believe that what we did in the course is really only the tip of the
iceberg when it comes to Ukrainian whitework!

Apparently the type of merezhka (Ukrainian word for cut and drawn
work/ single drawn work) is from the Poltava region of Ukraine.

I have a book waiting for me at my local library from interlibrary
loans on Ukrainian Embroidery which I can't wait to get my hands on
tomorrow! I'm still searching for other books on the subject too.

I'm so thrilled to have found something "new" to explore.

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

And your bullion wrap: One of those long threads that are wrapped?

Wish I was sitting next to you in class!
Dianne

Yvette wrote:

Hi everyone,

Today I did the second and final part of the workshop at my local
guild in Merezhka embroidery. We learnt how to do the "bullion wrap"
style corner, and how to turn the corner.

I loved the course and am looking forward to finishing my piece and
putting it in our guild's exhibition later this year. However, I
believe that what we did in the course is really only the tip of the
iceberg when it comes to Ukrainian whitework!

Apparently the type of merezhka (Ukrainian word for cut and drawn
work/ single drawn work) is from the Poltava region of Ukraine.

I have a book waiting for me at my local library from interlibrary
loans on Ukrainian Embroidery which I can't wait to get my hands on
tomorrow! I'm still searching for other books on the subject too.

I'm so thrilled to have found something "new" to explore.

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Dianne Lewandowski wrote:
Wish I was sitting next to you in class!

Me too, me too!


Yvette wrote:
We learnt how to do the "bullion wrap"
style corner, and how to turn the corner.

You've intrigued me!

Jeanine in Canada

Apparently there weren't traditionally any corners to learn - they
only used the style of embroidery in long straight bands. Rather like
old style Hardanger.

The corners have been developed in response to a need - the way that
some people use the style of embroidery now (like around the edge of a
tablecloth etc.) requires some way to turn a corner. Not sure who came
up with it, but it wasn't necessarily someone Ukrainian who
understands the culture and meaning behind the Poltava style of
Merezhka (I don't know whether to capitalise this or not!).

The term "bullion wrap" in regards to corners is one that I saw used
once to refer to some aspect of merezhka on RCTN. I have just assumed
that this must refer to what I learnt because it seems to describe it
aptly. It is however, simply like wrapping a mesh of bars in
Hardanger, just on a smaller scale.

Clear as mud?!

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Hi Dianne,

I'm not sure if we *are* thinking of the same sort of thing (corners).
The area I mean is where the two bands of threads removed for the
merezhka meet and form a corner grid. I *think* that what you mean is
creating a new bar to wrap bullion-style, but what I mean is simply
covering over/finishing that grid of fabric threads with bullion-style
wrapping, not creating new ones.

Got that?! :-)

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Yes, you guessed where my head was at - and a big thank you.
Except: How can you remove threads from perpendicular rows and have any
left in the corner?? Unless, of course, you're not removing *all* the
threads? Or, only removing them in one direction. (Trying desperately to
picture this in my head!)

Anyway, it's just wrapped bars, not actual bullions. That's what I was
trying to understand when I saw a couple sites that mentioned the
"bullions in corners" as a feature of this embroidery. I thought they
were doing something "unique".

Dianne

Yvette wrote:

Hi Dianne,

I'm not sure if we *are* thinking of the same sort of thing (corners).
The area I mean is where the two bands of threads removed for the
merezhka meet and form a corner grid. I *think* that what you mean is
creating a new bar to wrap bullion-style, but what I mean is simply
covering over/finishing that grid of fabric threads with bullion-style
wrapping, not creating new ones.

Got that?! :-)

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Ok. Now I get it. All the threads aren't removed. Thanks so much!
Words are sometimes so inadequate, both to explain a technique and to
convey appreciation for someone taking the time. :-)
Dianne

Yvette wrote:
Except: How can you remove threads from perpendicular rows and have any
left in the corner?? Unless, of course, you're not removing *all* the
threads? Or, only removing them in one direction. (Trying desperately to
picture this in my head!)


Ok, imagine you are going to work a hemstitch hem on a piece of fabric
(removing one thread to work the hemstitching). On any corner of that
fabric, you will have where the two removed threads meet. If you then
left a number of threads, say 2, and then removed two more, and kept
doing this towards the centre of the fabric for some distance, you
would end up with a grid of removed threads and holes in the corner.
This is the sort of thing I mean, though you don't actually need the
hem in merezhka - just the hemstitching and the removed threads.

Does that make sense?

...and I found out "merezhka" doesn't need to be capitalised, any more
than "drawn thread work" does. Its the Ukrainian transliteration of
the same thing. :-)

I love learning! And its so nice to have interested people to share it
with.

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Sorry about yesterday's post coming up twice. Don't know why that
happened!

I always found it interesting when I used to use many different search
engines that Google always got the best results for anything
needlework related. No idea why. But interesting all the same!

Dianne, I'd be interested in hearing about the websites you found too!

Here's one you can try:
http://ukrainian.com.ua/ipatiy/samples.htm
This is modern day Ukrainian embroidery. Beautiful.

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

THANK YOU! Now, why couldn't I come up with those sites when I did a
google search!! Argh!

It looks like Roman stitch is used. Very interesting how they weave the
blocks. And I'm a little more clear on those corners.
Dianne



Stefania Bressan wrote:
If you search "myreschka" (german) you will find many sites, many with
photos, or booklets to be sold, but others more useful.

http://www.zweigart.de/handarbeit/te...myreschka.html
a bit of instructions, the diagrams are quite clear

http://www.teddys-handarbeiten.de/xs...-myreschka.htm
very nice: a project explained step by step, with *very* clear photos

For the corners: I know that there are two ways of doing them.
1.- working each line until it meets the other one (from the other
side): it will form a staircase. You can see an example on the
previous page, scrolling down until "3. und 4. Naht".
2.- making a square wrapped grid; you can also do some needleweaving
design in the corner, just leaving unwrapped the bars over you're
going to needleweave (otherwise it will be too much bulk).

Ciao, Stefania

Just checked it and it worked fine... Um, no idea why it won't work
for you! Sorry!

I did post yesterday to say thanks to Stefania, but I got an error
when I clicked on the post button. As I got posted twice the other day
by error, I decided to let it go and see if it came up anyway, because
I didn't want to repeat post like the other day again. But as it turns
out, it didn't show up.

So, Stephania, again I say thanks! That "teddies" website is a real
find for anyone who wants to clearly see how to do the technique.

Yvette
Sydney, Australia

Yvette, the site keeps giving me a connection error or timing out - can
you double check the url? Thanks!!