Date: December 2012
I bought this Thistle Threads A Casket Needlecase kit in December 2010.
The text on the beautifully packaged box says it is 'A needlework accessories case inspired by the Leverett cabinet from the Peabody Essex collection. This eight inch by eight inch case contains pockets for a rose needle book, tulip pinkeep, and several of the included die cut threadwinders. Additional pockets can hold your scissors and other accessories in your collection. Kit includes 24 colours of Au Ver a Soie Silk, 36 and 32 count linen, all gold threads, needles, wire, gold webigmpe ribbon, pink lining silk, die cut finishing pieces, die cut metalized leather 'hardware', threadwinders, 30 page instruction book, and CD ROM with photographs of the embroidery and finishing process for the casket needlecase, rose needlebook, and tulip pinkeep."
I'm not 100% sure what drove me to select this kit out of my stash of historically inspired needlework projects that need starting...perhaps I selected this because I had enrolled in the Cabinets of Curiosities course and I really wanted to make something cabinet related. Once I broke open the kit, and put the linen on the frame, I was slightly daunted by the tiny scale of the embroidery. I have never embroidered on linen like this before (36 count).
I am also not convinced that my needlepoint technique (courtesy of Dominque Siegler Lathrop) works so well on this tiny scale. It certainly is slow (but I am kind of used to being no speedy gonzalez). Anyway, a start has been made and the kit is gorgeous, the colours of the silk wonderful...so I press on.
