Prayer Book Cover

I decided to try my hand at Mary Corbet's design for a prayer book cover, as she has graciously granted me permission. I'm using an upholstery weight woven cotton remnant, which I think would wear better for every day usage. I measured out the entire book cover and attached it on a long stretcher frame - as I worry about getting the hoop marks out if I were to use a hoop. I used my Pilot Frixion pen to trace the pattern onto the fabric, using a light box. As the fabric is somewhat thick but stretchy, I ironed on the sf101 stabilizer on the back (per Trish Burr). At this point the tracing went away, as it was supposed to do. After storing the fabric overnight in the freezer, the tracing came back, as expected. The Frixion pen works really well for me!

My original motivation for this endeavor was to practice stitching satin round circles for the grapes. On second thought, I decided it was too difficult, so I used Mary Corbet's suggestion of Rhodes stitch instead. I changed the color of the cross, and used #8 perle cotton, couched, except for the ends.

The leaf turned out ok, the bullion knots, not so much, but they will have to do.