14th century inspired Klosterstich rose embroidery finished :)

And finally I found the time to finish the 14th century inspired Klosterstich rose embroidery which I started last year.

Yes, I admit it, I neglected this small project a little and worked on several other more urgent projects in the meantime. But after my husbands heart attack last week, I really needed a nice embroidery project to ease my mind.

I think everyone of us has something special that can provide a certain peace of mind. In some cases it is chocolate, some prefer to snack on nuts or have a nice glass of beer or wine, others start cleaning their home,… and well, I prefer to work at my embroidery projects. Well, not that I would reject chocolate or a good glass of wine or beer, but embroidery is definitely my pacifier.

While I was working at our 12th century wedding clothing, this small 14th century Klosterstich rose embroidery was very patently waiting in one of my boxes. It was nearly finished – all the Klosterstich embroidery was already done and it just lacked the outlines to complete the embroidery.

But well, you know, outlines can be a little bit tricky. They can elevate your embroidery but they can also turn it in a quite boring piece of needlework. Therefore I decided to go with a rather vibrant and daring color combination. And looking at the finished piece I think that I definitely made the right color choices – but take a look yourself! Enjoy! 😀

I know, many people make quite “secure” color choices when it comes to the outlines of their Klosterstich embroidery. But I think that using daring and vibrant colors definitely adds to every 14th century inspired Klosterstich embroidery. 

When you look at 14th century artwork, you will in most cases discover a beautiful world of embellishment and color. During the last years already some extant medieval embroidery pieces revealed their beautiful vibrant colors hidden at the protected inside when they were taken from the display, opened up, cleaned and re-assembled. As rare as this occasions are and as little information about it actually gets to the public, they give us a glimpse of the real colors – of a beautiful, colorful and not quite as “dark” medieval time as some people use to claim.

I think this is one of the reasons why I love medieval and especially 14th century embroidery. It allows us to go crazy with colors and to be playful – to experiment, to dare,… and to finally come up with fun color combinations.

And now let’s take a look at two close up pictures of my Klosterstich rose embroidery and the outlines – enjoy!

The surface filling embroidery – which you can see in the picture above and underneath – was executed in the Klosterstich technique.

According to the technical literature, which I could find about this technique till now, the outlines of Klosterstich embroidery were also done in the Klosterstich technique. Being not able to examine the extant pieces myself I tend to not contradict this position. But already long time ago I decided to do it a little bit different.

Many years ago, when I started with Klosterstich embroidery, I tried to work the outlines in the Klosterstich technique. But soon I discovered that it was a quite frustrating and difficult task and I decided to use the much easier and similar looking Stem Stitch instead. If you would like to try the Stem Stitch for your outlines, you can find more information about this stitch here: Hand sewing stitches: Back Stitch & its connection to Stem Stitch

Last but not least I also have two photos of the backside of my embroidery for you to give you a more complete “picture” of this Klosterstich embroidery:

…and here a close up of the backside:

Some of you will remember my posting “Klosterstich hands on tutorial – part 1 – how to start your Klosterstich embroidery” and recognize the small piece of thread in the middle of the flower on the picture above. Yes, it is really not difficult to start a Klosterstich embroidery if you know how.

And now, that I have no more pressure of time, I will finally be able to post the next part of the Klosterstich hands on tutorial. It’s funny – I thought so much about the second part of the tutorial and what I would write about the technique that I actually started believing that I already posted it. But when I took a look through my postings, I discovered that it was still due. But no worries, all pictures for the photo tutorial are already taken and I just need to write the text for it. It will just take some more days… 😉

Yes, I think you can see that Klosterstich embroidery is one of my favorite past times.
I really hope you enjoyed the pictures of the finished 14th century inspired Klosterstich rose embroidery. And I think you might also enjoy the next step of this project – I will assemble a small “reliquary box” and this Klosterstich rose embroidery will embellish the top lid. 🙂

If you would like to try this technique and/or pattern yourself you can download the rose pattern and the Klosterstich embroidery handout here:

– Klosterstich embroidery handout –
– 14th century rose pattern –

More postings about the progress of this 14th century inspired Klosterstich rose embroidery can be found here:

1) Sneak peek at some new Klosterstich embroidery 🙂
2) …another sneak peek at my Klosterstich embroidery .1
3) …another sneak peek at my Klosterstich embroidery .2
4) …another sneak peek at my Klosterstich embroidery .3
5) …another sneak peek at my Klosterstich embroidery .4
6) …another sneak peek at my Klosterstich embroidery .5