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Tatreez design by Jordan Nassar, stitched by me.
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From an article in Selvedge magazine, I learned about the work of Palestinian-American Jordan Nassar, who works in a contemporary form of traditional Palestinian embroidery called tatreez. For the London cultural center The Mosaic Rooms he created a down-loadable tatreez pattern. One of the colorways suggested was magenta and orange on black canvas. I liked this very much, so decided to stitch it using DMC pearl cotton number 8 in colors 600 (magenta) and 741 (orange-y yellow) on a piece of 15" x 18" 14-count Aida cloth.
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Pattern.
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I printed out the material from The Mosaic Rooms and added center guidelines, in red pen, to the pattern.
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In progress.
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I basted center line guidelines first and popped the canvas into a Q-snap embroidery frame, seen above, and started stitching from the center outwards, counting extremely carefully.
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Outer border completed.
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Close-up of stitching.
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The back, in progress.
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I found it useful to sometimes tack down thread using drafting tape, a low-tack, low-residue tape. This allowed me to change or amend my stitching before tying off.
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Finished - back view.
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The finished embroidery was expertly mounted by textile conservators ConText Inc. Before framing I will add an indelible label to the back of the mounting stating the designer's name. Credit where credit is due.
