May from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
adapted by Jennifer Gilligan, Woodbridge, Virginia, USA
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Jennifer writes:
I have always been obsessed by needlework, passionate about books, and highly interested in medieval art and history, especially illuminated manuscripts. I desparately wanted to stitch a design that showed the beauty, detail, and color of the manuscripts I so loved. After years of searching, I couldn't find what I dreamed of stitching. So I decided to chart one of my favorite pictures from my favorite medieval Book of Hours. My stitching friends quickly named the project The Insanity.
With the help of my scanner, computer, and HobbyWare's Pattern Maker software, I started what would be a year long odyssey. I already had learned that scanning a picture was just the first step in the tortuous process of creating a chart. Although the computer helps with proportion, it doesn't do a good job of choosing colors, shading, and defining edges. Often the computer would do odd things such as adding purple stitches to a green dress. Over a six month period, I spent well over 400 hours at the computer fixing the pattern stitch by stitch, trying to make it look as much like the original as possible. Although I've been stitching since my teens, I finally found a project that I was petrified to start. For the first time, I basted my grid lines onto my fabric, every ten threads, using sewing thread on 36 count cream Edinborough linen over one thread. I then stitched the gold border, breaking the rule of not dividing Kreinik #4 braid. Nothing I tried would lay nicely on the fabric, until I tried this. Using 2 strands of #4 braid and going through 2 entire spools of the braid, meticulously unbraided, I stitched the border. The rest of the piece was stitched in DMC and Anchor floss entirely in tent stitch (continental stitch). I used Anchor floss for the blues, purples and reds. I used DMC floss for all of the other colors. I used one strand of the floss. The final touches were the sun's rays and the stars, using Japan Gold #1 Super Fine. The piece is 265 stitches wide by 418 stitches high, measuring 7 1/4 inches by 11 1/2 inches. It took approximately 6 entire months of stitching to complete.
I did enter the piece in a competition -- the 1999 Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Competition and Exhibition, in Alexandria, Virginia. It won the Pope-Leighey Award for best miniature (over 32 count) and a First Place ribbon. My long-suffering husband was not surprised when we bought furniture for the room where "The Insanity" would live, that the blue of the couch matched the darkest blue of the sky and the throw pillows and rocking chair are a deep gold with blue flowers. My stitching friends are always reminding me that there are 11 other months in the Book of Hours!"
Jennifer Gilligan