Wednesday, March 25, 2015

The Firescreen--Now Appearing at Woodlawn

Tapestry Tent's Earthy Paradise, Stitched by Kate L. Callahan

Since so many of us never make it to the Woodlawn exhibit when my friend Kate Callahan mentioned she'd sent her fire screen off to the show, I begged her for photos to share.  What you see above is Tapestry Tent's "Earthy Paradise." The fire screen itself is antique and 17 inches square.  Kate changed the earthy brown tones to brighter ones to be more authentic.  I found this online photo so you can see the original colors as designed by Liz Dillon.
http://rittenhouseneedlepoint.com/earthly-paradise.html



Comparing Kate's fire screen to the original design, you will see Kate added a crewel-type bottom to ground the vase and create a more crewel-like look.  She used brighter colors to make this piece more period, as you can see in these two photos which show a fire screen from the mid to late 1700s with the original stitching still inside.

The back of the antique fire screen (left) is much brighter than the front side (right).  By the way, Kate's version is all tent stitches, even the crewel ground under the vase.  If you click on the photos, they should enlarge enough for you to see how Kate played with the background colors to bring out the four birds in the bouquet.

Thank you so much for sharing the piece and its inspiration with us, Kate!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright March 24, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

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