A Passion for Textiles

I’ve always enjoyed embroidery, my own and that of others.  My mother is a fine embroiderer.  My mother-in-law never learned to do needlework even though her mother was an excellent embroiderer. 

I have one piece of my mother’s embroidery - a teacloth - and the rest of her work is still in her own house. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to choose several pieces of embroidered work from my mother-in-law’s estate - no one else was interested in them.  Even so, my sister-in-law and I packed up a cedar chest and a large chest of drawers with hooked rugs, quilts, bedding, and table linens, waiting for the next generation to become householders in need of heirloom textiles.  But I’m finding that the young people today don’t care much about having crocheted or tatted or embroidered things in their homes. 

I still like having them around. 

This is one piece I did many years ago.  The pattern and photograph of the original were found in an oversize book at the library, “The Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework” by Rose Wilder Lane.  Yes, the very daughter of my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder.

When I worked the embroidery, I borrowed the book from the library, traced the pattern (that could have even been before there were photocopiers in libraries) and worked the threads in different colors on an even-weave linen.  I made the embroidery into a small pillow and displayed it on my couch for Years.  It received a lot of hard wear and a few washings.  It finally began to come apart.  Not the embroidery, but the fabric itself.  In the photo you can see the wear. 

So, like the woven coverlet that is too good to just throw away, I’m especially fond of this particular embroidery of mine, and wonder what I can do with it other than just leave it in a drawer.  Maybe one of these days I’ll frame it, just so I can look at it and remember how much I liked making it.

A few years ago I noticed a copy of the book for sale on the internet.  I immediately bought it and now enjoy looking through it again and again, on my own time.

Here are a few of the pieces that I'm sheltering: