lynxlace.com   Pulled Thread Work Gallery    Geometric Designs     © Lorelei Halley 2009

   Site Map       Drawn Thread Work    See Compare for distinction between pulled thread and drawn thread.

  Pulled Thread Gallery-Curvilinear     Pulled Thread Work   

 Pulled Thread Tutorial    Pulled Thread Tutorial 2   The White Sampler  

DESIGNING and kinds of designs for pulled thread work:

Designing for this kind of lace is a matter of juxtaposing areas containing differing kinds of holes, and varying this with surface stitchery of differing textures.  Also some traditional stitches produce puffy or ridge effects, and this, too, adds to the interest when used judiciously.  You want dense areas, different kinds of holes, simple holes and complex holes,  and usually some textured surface embroidery to give relief and variety.  This form of lace is relatively easy to design for, and there are several approaches historically and in the modern age.

See Pulled Thread Gallery- Curvilinear   for various ways of arranging a curvilinear design.  If there is no embroiderer or designer specified, it is myself.

Geometric designs:

 Another approach is to create geometric shapes or lines, straight, zigzag or diagonal, each in a different stitch, or to plan the work as a surface embroidery with counted stitches, using the pulled stitches instead of other more common ones.  Geometry is interesting if it is complex enough.

Made and designed by Lorelei Halley:

    pt8      Cable stitch, 3 sided stitch, square back stitch, eyelets, French knots, buttonhole stitch.

       pt10 Satin stitch, pebble stitch, braid stitch, square edging st.

        pt6  Diagonal cable, square double back stitch, eyelets, ringed back stitch, squared edging stitch.

                   pt42  The light colored little squares are square double back stitch.  It makes a puffy little square spot, which stands above the surface and gives interesting relief to the piece.  I also used upright cross, Greek cross and diagonal cable stitches in this piece.  Upright cross also makes a raised ridge.  Three sided stitch secures the edge.

             pt7 Pulled thread work. Diagonal cable, ringed back, 4 sided stitch, lazy daisy.

                pt3 Greek cross, eyelets, diagonal cable, upright cross, 4 sided, buttonhole, lazy daisy.

--------------------------

In these 2 below I borrowed layout ideas from Hardanger and applied them to pulled thread.

     pt 38     Satin, colonial knot, double window, spaced faggot, eyelets, lazy daisy.  In this one I tried outlining the pulled area in satin stitches, not exactly the same way as in Hardanger, but similar.  Can't decide if it works.

              pt 2  Small ringed back, coral knot, diagonal cable, Greek cross, long armed cross, Hedebo buttonhole.  In this piece I tried to use a layout that works in Hardanger, to see if it works for pulled thread.  Not sure.

--------------------------

Pulled thread embroidery made by JL.  This is a geometric piece, but has the background filled in completely in a variant of 4 sided stitch.

 Geometric motifs made of several stitches:

One more approach is to invent geometric motifs made up of several pulled stitches and then scatter them on the cloth in some regular geometric array.

Patchwork quilt style:

Still another way to think about design for this form is to borrow ideas from patchwork quilts (especially very simple ones), canvas embroidery, or blackwork embroidery.  In canvas work one juxtaposes stitches with different textures and different colors.  In blackwork one works with differing degrees of light and dark.  In pulled thread work this becomes large holes and small holes, or simple holes and complex holes, with textured surface stitches as a foil.  One could use a patchwork quilt layout and fill the geometric areas with different stitches, using different kinds of holes instead of different colors of fabrics or kinds of prints.

Contact me at lhalley@bytemeusa.com