Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Today’s article almost ended up with the unfortunate title Lucky Lacy Leprechauns on Lime. But then I realized I wasn’t really writing about leprechauns. I’m not sure why I equate shamrocks with leprechauns…

With all this playing about with lattice fillings in vivid colors that we’ve been doing recently, I’ve neglected to tell you a very important point.

To illustrate this point, and in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I doodled up a few shamrocks on some lime green linen.

The point is that lattice stitches look terrific in white. While they can be a legitimate part of whitework embroidery (white-on-white), they work even better on a colored linen ground fabric.

White embroidery on a colored linen….mmmm mmm mmmm. It’s better than candy!

This is an Italian linen, and I don’t have a source for it anymore. The thread is #20 coton a broder in white. The outline is worked in Palestrina stitch, with lattice work and chain stitch inside.

This shamrock is outlined with a simple chain stitch, with a French knot in every other window.

The outline on this one is whipped chain stitch.

Imagine using your favorite color of linen – blue? green? pink? bright orange? red? natural? – and working any simple design – maybe a monogram? a favorite family symbol? a holiday ornament? – in white thread, using plenty of lattice techniques.

Wouldn’t it be pretty? The bonus is this, though – it works up really fast!

You may keep the corned beef and cabbage. I’ll just take the soda bread, please.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!