The Exemplary 2024
The Exemplary Award
The Muse’s Kiss (Peg LaFlam Award)

“Right through the earth” are Alice’s words as she falls through the hole in the tree stump on her way to Wonderland. This etui is inspired by the 17th and 18th century raised embroidery boxes and creates original stumpwork/raised embroidery vignettes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. When the book was written in 1800s, top hats were made from beaver pelts; this top hat is made from wool felt.

Felt padding creates the White Rabbit, tree, rose trees, mushrooms, Blue Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, hookah pipe, pink flamingo, and hedgehog. Kid leather, velvet, Angelina, vintage mink, suede, perforated paper, silk, satin, and muslin are used with cotton, silk, metal, silk ribbon and manufactured threads.

Many stitches are used, including bullion, French, Ghiordes and colonial knots; rouched ribbon; cording, including whipped cording; padded satin; spilt stitch; shading; beading; needle lace; wrapped wire; detached button hole and button hole, including a personal variation of the stitch; cross stitch; scotch stitch; couching; straight stitch; Cretan; leaf stitch; ribbon-wrapped beads; raised stem band; reverse raised stem band (unable to find this in a book so I created it); and Joyce’s Fargo Flower.

Of the vignettes, the White Rabbit in his needle lace waistcoat runs to the opening in the tree to head back to Wonderland. Perforated paper creates the Queen of Hearts’ knaves hard at work painting the white roses red, and worried about the results. The Blue Caterpillar, stitched in reverse raised stem band, sits on a suede appliqued mushroom enjoying its hookah pipe in the garden, while the thread-shaded Cheshire Cat fades in. The pink flamingo (needle lace, raised stem band) and hedgehog (bullion knots) enjoy a respite from a game of croquet.

The gryphon scissor case is made from vintage materials – satin, mink and silk and manufactured threads. The wings are made with the Cretan stitch and the tail is the scissor fob.

The mock turtle’s shell (carapace) thimble pip is stitched on olive green dupioni silk with gold pearl purl, The bottom of the shell (plastron) is stitched on dyed yellow satin using chain and split stitches in cotton floss.

In the first few pages of Alice in Wonderland, Alice’s sister is reading a book with “no pictures.” With that statement, this needlebook is made without a title. It is made a dark olive-green cotton fabric and goldwork approximating gold embossing that would have been used on books for lettering and decorative motifs. The inside of the needlebook has a pocket for the beeswax hedgehog and two wool felt pages. The first page holds the two needles, Tulip #22 chenille and Bohin #10 embroidery, I used most creating this one-of-a-kind etui.