Trevelyon's Needlecase at the EGA Gateway to Stitching 2019

Shortly after I moved back to Iowa from Berlin, I applied to teach at the EGA National Conference "Gateway to Stitching" in St. Louis in November 2019. I'm pleased to say that I was chosen to teach a mini class in St. Louis on the Tuesday evening!The piece I'll be teaching is Trevelyon's Needlecase. It's one of the things I've been working on the past month but couldn't write about it until after this year's conference when all the new pieces were introduced to this year's attendees. You can see it here on their web site along with all the other classes being offered during the conference.The design is from Thomas Trevelyon's Common place Book of 1608 - the very book I wrote about in this post.  I used many of the same colors I used in both Trevelyon's Cap and Trevelyon's Pocket. They look so fresh and elegant! For this project I chose to use stranded cotton, although the needle case could be worked in silk as well, it would just be a more expensive and less durable thread. Since a needle case is to be used frequently I decided cotton would be the better choice.My initial design for the rose had light pink shading with a yellow center. However, when I finished it, the pink looked very drab and dull. So, I took it out and reworked the area in white. It was a bit tricky to take out the pink threads since I'd already done all the French knots in the middle but, thanks to my magnifying lamp and a great little pair of scissors (and a HUGE amount of luck!), I was able to get all the threads out with damaging the red satin stitch. I do NOT recommend this method!You can see the white is much brighter and it's the same color combination that's on the cap which makes me happy.The needle case had to be completed for the EGA Conference so I had to find fabric for the lining and felt for the pages. I am very fortunate to live in a town where there is an amazing quilt shop called Quilting Connection. The woman who owns it and her staff are always happy to help me find fabric to complete an embroidery project and they helped me again this time. I found a tiny blue and white print that's simply charming for the lining of the cover and I am using white felt for the pages.If you're going to the EGA Conference in St. Louis I would love to see you in my class. The classes offered at the conference look wonderful and I've already chosen the ones I hope to be able to take. I'd love to see you in St. Louis!