Stitcher:

Margaret K. von Kuegelgen

Designer:

Margaret K. von Kuegelgen

Stitcher's comments:

The stitched needlework is an adaptation of a photograph of the Sigma Nu Fraternity Crest which was scanned on the computer and sent to me by my son. I enlarged the scan to the size I wished and then drew a line drawing of the main elements of the design on my canvas by placing the enlargement on the window and taping the canvas on top of it.

Although the crest seems a relatively simple design, I found several components of it to be challenging. I wanted the snake in the lower left corner to be raised, so I padded it and stitched it in a satin stitch. The saber handles were especially interesting to stitch since the angles of the handles were not at right angles to the direction of the canvas thread. I had to stitch them with the canvas at a peculiar angle so that my eye would read the length of the straight stitches correctly. At first I attempted to shade the drapes of the mantel with long and short stitches but could not achieve the desired effect so I stitched laid long stitches in blocks of color.

I chose to use an embellishment (a commander's badge from the fraternity) as the center of the sunburst element at the top of the helmet of the crest. I found I could not stitch the shape or the motifs definitively since they were so small. I made the cord to put around the shield portion of the crest to even out the edges and give the shield a definite edge. I also used silk ribbon as an embellishment at the top, rather than trying to stitch a ribbon effect.

Crest is a registered trademark of Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc.; shown on this Web page with the fraternity's permission.