d work. The design is
a conventional scroll-work pattern, and the various hangings have
alternately the rose ground with gold pattern, and gold ground with rose
pattern, the whole forming a rich and harmonious interchange of colour.

[Illustration: Fig. 96.]

Fig. 96 is an example of inlaid work. It is a XVth century tabard said
to have belonged to Charles the Bold, and now in the Musee Historique at
Berne. The pattern, it will be noticed, is planned on the counterchange
principle, which is particularly well suited for this method of work.

A very ancient piece of the same kind of inlaid work is the funeral tent
of Queen Isi-em-Keb, dated about 980 B.C., which is in the Boulak
Museum, Cairo. It is composed of thousands of pieces of gazelle hide
dyed in various colours and stitched together so as to form a wonderful
design.[4]

To carry out the work--Stitch in a frame some holland to use as a
background; this may be only temporary, being removed when the work is
completed, or it may be left for additional strength. The materials for
both background and pattern must first be carefully cut out. It is a
good plan, where possible, to cut the two together so as to ensure exact
similarity, for they have to fit together afterwards like the parts of a
puzzle. The cut edges cannot be allowed to fray, so if there is any
danger of this, precautions must be taken to prevent it, though the
better way is to choose in the first place more suitable material.
Leather is a particularly good example of one. Any pasting or backing
which might be used for prevention of fraying would prevent also that
possibility of exposing both sides of the work, which in inlay is
sometimes a valuable quality; also, the stiffening which unavoidably
results from pasting is rarely an improvement. When materials of
different thicknesses are used together, the thinner one can be lined
with fine holland so as to make it nearer equal in strength. After the
materials are cut out the next process is to lay them in position on the
prepared holland and tack them to it. Then, with an overcast stitch that
must not be allowed to pierce the under surface, join all the edges
together, and cover the stitches with a finishing cord or braid. The
backing can now be removed if need be.

PATCHWORK

Patchwork can hardly attain to a high position amongst the various
branches of embroidery. The main object of doing patchwork frequently is
to make good use of valuable scra