MontMellick Work...

Now, as I am making a MontMellick heart for ChainofHearts for lovely Maureen 3 of Austrailia I thought I would write a little bit about it.

Mountmellick or Montmellick embroidery is a dimensional white on white embroidery technique. Traditonally done in knitting cotton on a heavy white cotton satin jean.

Motifs tend to include a variety of natural floral designs specifically those of the area local to Montmellick such as: blackberries, acorns, dog rose, ivy, oak, barley, woodbine, and wild clematis.
Cultivated plants such as snowdrops, passionflowers and cyclamen, and daffodils also crept in along with butterflies, seashells and even birds have crept in during the revival of it lately.

There are three embroidery stitches specific to Mountmellick work:
* The cable plait stitch
* Mountmellick stitch of which there is a good description on this page http://www.white-works.com/mountmellick.htm
* Mountmellick thorn stitch - I can't find this anywhere....

Other normal embroidery stitches used include: Bullion, Long cable or cable chain, Thorn stitch, French knot, Blanket stitch, Buttonhole stitch, Satin stitch, chain stitch, Seed Stitch, Feather stitch and Lazy daisy.

For information this is one of the best sites I'd found : http://www.mountmellick.net/activities/what_is_mountmellick_embroidery.htm
and its sister page: http://www.mountmellick.net/activities/history_of_mountmellick_embroidery.htm