Monday, February 21, 2011

A Stitch Through Time


"Embroidery is the thread that connects women through all the centuries of our history, no matter how much our lifestyles change."
Tucked into a corner of a nearby True Value Ace Hardware, way behind the homegoods, candles and small appliances, sits a rack of hot iron transfer patterns, tea towels, needles, hoops and floss of every hue. I was immediately drawn to the hot iron transfers with quaint images of kittens performing a different household chore for each day of the week, roosters serenading hens outside the barnyard, teapots dancing among the flowers of Monday through Friday plus this primitive country setting.

I can imagine my great, great grandmother mentoring her young daughter as she created her first sampler. They would be sitting near the fire, the mother leaning over her daughter's work, checking for proper stitch length and tension. There would be a tabby cat at their feet purring contentedly as it licks its paws after finishing a saucer of milk. Someone might be reading aloud from the Bible or playing a happy tune on the fiddle.

I have seen quilts called crazy quilts where a mishmash of fabric is pieced together and often times decorated with stitchery, ribbons, buttons or other trinkets. I thought it might be nice to make one of these, perhaps embroidered scenes of favorite memories using techniques similar to the example below. As soon as I master both!

crazy quilt link

embroidery quote link

6 comments:

Manny said...

Very nice!

TLW said...

Beautiful. I'm not very neat with embroidery but I find it so therapeutic. I wish I had the patience and the talent to quilt.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Let me try again-
Thank you. If I can quilt, anyone can! I would have been overwhelmed with the whole bedspread at once, but if I think about is as a block at a time, I can do that. I've got to learn the right stitches for the embroidery though. I found a good resource on the web so I'll have to study up.

me said...

This sounds exciting! It's ages since I've done any embroidery. I feel a new hobby coming on!! Thanks for the ideas. I think needlework would be mentaly soothing too, at least to me it seems it would. I am not very artisitic full stop, but that's not really the point for me wanting to try.

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I am not very artistic either, which is why I chose the hot iron transfer, which was very easy as long as you have the iron hot enough. They don't tell you what colors to use. You'd think I could do that on my own but it helps me to see how others have completed things. Some of the needlework blogs are helpful. Nice to hear from you again.