Embroidery

Back in the day women knew how to do so many different types of handwork, and they did an amazing job!!
The huge table cloth pictured below is just one of the kinds of things done by hand~yes that's right~this piece is done by hand!!

Isn't it amazing?! Can you just imagine the hours it took?!
I'm glad she took that time! It gives me a lot of pleasure~but I don't think as much pleasure as it gave her.
The sense of accomplishment pulse the usefulness...wow! I can only imagine.

As I look around my home and the homes of family and friends, I simply love to look at the things they or someone else made by hand or antiques and family heirlooms they have collected and treasure.

When you make things by hand there is so much more than time that goes into it~there are thoughts, wishes, hopes, dreams and most of all love!!

Honey's Aunt M. (who by the way is in her mid 80's), tells me she remembers the afternoon's when her mother, Grandmother and other's would gather in the afternoons for their embroidery group. They would talk and laugh and cry and work on the things for their homes and for gifts for others.

She said, "Oh, everyone knew how to do things like that. You had to. You couldn't just go out and buy it."

" It cost a lot and people just plain didn't have ten cents to spend on embroidery when it came down to the dime being put toward the meat you needed for dinner that cost twenty-five cents, or the embroidery piece you wanted to make~not when you only made $1.50 every two week's!!"

" So you walked to the store, bought the meat, went home and made your own pattern and went to work."

When Aunt M. was a teenager she made some things that she has given to us.

Below is one she made the pattern for, because she didn't have the pennies needed to buy stamped patterns at the "five & dime".

My Grandma Verral enjoyed getting together with the ladies to do quilting, play cards and to do handwork...I was given this table cloth along with 4 napkins that she had made...

I love how she did the basket and the handle...I have to admit that I am not really sure how to do those stitches and have them look as good as hers...

A friend of my parents (MissyOliver~is what I called her, because I couldn't say her name). She made this little table cloth and the matching napkins...

Aunt M. made dish towel sets when she was a teenager and for many years after, to give as gifts for wedding's, new neighbor's, old neighbors and family...

She found two Set's that she had forgotten about, at the time we were moving into our new house and she brought them as a house warming gift the day she and Honey's Mom came to see the house and have lunch...

I use them for show, because I don't want to ruin them...

I remember that dish towels, pillow cases and hankies were the first things I learned how to iron.

Not that they needed to be ironed but because I needed the practice...

I've been known to have made a few sets of dish towels for gifts and trousseau's...I've made and worn out a few sets myself and it was time to make a new set...

So I set out and found an old pattern in a new book. Traced on the pattern. Chose the floss from my extra floss stash and went to work...

I worked on it throughout the day and because it is a small pattern I was able to finish it easily and still get other things done.


I have embroidered for quite a few year's now and I still enjoy it. It seems like it goes in phases.

The knitting phase, crochet phase, sewing phase, quilting phase, embroidery phase, cross stitch phase...

I asked Aunt M. how they used to color their embroidery work when she was young, she told me and I made this pillow a few year's ago...

Then I decided I needed to get a Little more fancy and asked one of my sister's to please teach me how to do Brazilian Embroidery (Aunt M. called it wrapped embroidery).

So I gave that a try...

The shiny floss she taught me with is a little hard for me to find so I just use the regular embroidery floss that I buy at Ben Franklin Craft store...

And now that it seems the embroidery phase is lurking about, I have a yoke that needs some decorative touches...

Now what pattern? I think it will be Brazilian...maybe pastel pink and greens...

And while I'm working on this I am lining up things to be made for Christmas~

I know, I know~but when its handmade you have to start early, plus it gives you things to do and keep your mind and hands busy for a good ling time...