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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Northern Lights Lodge, post: 3957034, member: 13464&quot;]Hi everyone,</p><p>Well, pulling up the photos in a larger size helped. I&#039;m posting these observations just as points to consider as my expertise is truly lace; and from a lace standpoint I&#039;m looking at how it could be hand rather than machine...</p><p><br /></p><p>#1. I can see where someone running this chain stitch by hand; may have run it a bit cockeyed rather than leave a gap; where as machine may have just run over the spot and made two stitches in the same place.</p><p>#2. Each of these points (all around the serpentine vine) are all made differently - ie; stitches not completely repetitive... it seems to me that a machine would have a set pattern.</p><p>#3. Appears to be a knot or slug. If it is a knot; it is a BIG vote for hand done. If it is a slug (ie: a twisted up part of the thread)... perhaps more likely to be machine - particularly if this is on the front side as a handworker would have tried to remove it had it been on the front side.</p><p>#4. (not numbered) crescent shape. To me this is a vote for hand done; although I suppose machines can be programmed - but early as this appears to be; I don&#039;t know how programmable early machines would have been. But looking at how this was stitched; it makes sense for the center to have been worked back and forth and then the outside chain stitched. I&#039;m not sure that it would have had a chain stitch edge, if it was machine stitched. It may have just been omitted.</p><p>#5. This looks like a twisted chain stitch. Meaning that if it was hand done; the worker broke his rhythm and got his stitch twisted. I don&#039;t think a machine would do that.</p><p><br /></p><p>One last point.&nbsp; SOOO many repetitive chain stitches are different lengths. I feel like a machine would have been more consistent. Where as by hand; depending on who was working on it; and how long they&#039;d been working on it; their stitch length would be more likely to vary over the course of a working day. If, this piece was made by an artisan; then it would probably have been important to stitch very quickly. Hence; different chain stitch lengths. If you are a hand sewer or quilter; you know how difficult it is to maintain the same size stitch throughout a piece. It requires a lot of concentration to maintain exact stitching; and really can only be accomplished if you have time to concentrate.</p><p><br /></p><p>The fact that up close - stitches seem to go in all sorts of directions and there isn&#039;t repetitive continuity; speaks more &quot;handmade&quot; than machine. But as I said; I&#039;m not an embroidery expert. So truly my observations are food for thought.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cheerio Leslie</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]323525[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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