Hooked
I vividly remember how I was first introduced to embroidery. I was seven, and my family was visiting an historic museum. In my memory it was Old Sturbridge Village, in Sturbridge, MA, but I grew up in Rhode Island and we frequently made day trips to many of the museums in southeastern New England, including Plimoth Plantation. We could have been in any number of places.
What I remember about that particular trip is the woman embroidering. I was fascinated and absolutely itched to try it. I come from a family in which the women all did handcrafts, mostly crocheting and plain sewing, but embroidery was new to me. I don’t know if she was demonstrating and inviting members of the public to try the stitching as an established program; perhaps I was just patiently persistent and she made an exception, giving me some supplies so my family could at last move on. However the reality, I came away with a small piece of perforated paper, a blunt needle, and a length of orange cotton floss. She showed me how to make single cross stitches, lower left to upper right; lower right to upper left; and how to make a row of them – lower left to upper right to the end of the line, lower right to upper left all the way back. I remember making stitches on the way home until I was so thoroughly carsick I had to stop. Still can’t stitch in the car.
It wasn’t a passing fancy, either. After I filled up my piece of paper and ran out of floss, my mother procured a simple kit with stamped crosses and probably acrylic yarn. This was the 1970s, after all. I think my mother still has the red and green ladybug I made; I saw it not that long ago. I kept going and within a few years my mother was having trouble keeping me in projects. I did crewel work with wools and counted thread pieces on linen. In my work for Plimoth Plantation I have (very occasionally) worked ‘slips’ on fine canvas with silk.
Do you remember how you found your love of embroidery? How did you get hooked?
Today’s picture is of Tricia Wilson Nguyen and Wendy White examining one of Plimoth Plantation’s two 17th century samplers. This one is dated 1664 and has the initials “EC”. It is about half whitework and half colored silks, pretty thoroughly faded but in good condition overall. Participants in the June session (and now we have 11confirmed!) will be able to see both samplers during a Friday morning collections tour with Curator of Original Objects Karin Goldstein.
Kathy is quite rightly insisting that we firm up the schedule and get it posted here and mailed to the participants, so look for that early next week. I don’t know where we’d be without her
Tags: samplers
June 1st, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I can\’t wait to see the samplers in person, meet the other people, and most importantly, work on the jacket! My kit arrived yesterday and since I have almost all of tomorrow to myself I\’m planning to dive into working on it and get it back to you. I\’ll really look forward to seeing the schedule for June.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Hi
I also was hooked early on–me Mum did some Xstitch and then got me a small kit of an American Eagle, which I still have around here somewhere. I *think* I was all of 5 when I started it.
The Packet arrived today–hoorah!!! Hopefully it will be less hot and sticky by next week so I can stitch without dripping on it. It is a very loverly little kit.
Are you going to put the patterns used on the jacket up on the Blog?
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
When I was a child I had an aunt who quilted, and my Mom was an expert knitter – but I’d never really seen true embroidery being done until I was in high school. A girlfriend of mine had the flu – and when I called her up to ask her if she needed anything, she said she wondered if I’d mind going to the store to buy her an embroidery kit for her to pass the time with. I drove to Macy’s, because back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, Macy’s had an enormous needlework section in their store. I spent about 3 hours just looking – in total amazement. I finally bought my friend a kit to make into a piano bench cover, because her entire family played piano. When I walked into her living room she was sitting on the couch in her pajamas, and she immediately opened the kit, plopped on the floor, and began stitching the leaves with a pale green floss. Next came a pink flower. I stayed for about 2 hours watching her stitch, and on the way home I drove back to Macy’s and bought myself 2 Elsa Williams crewel kits – one of a rose, the other of an iris – and I still have them. They’re not bad for a first attempt either – I must say! And yes – I got the flu about 2 days after that visit with my friend. It was worth it – I remember staying in bed learning to do embroidery.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I came from a family of knitters, quilters, and crocheters too, but I’m the only one so far for whom embroidery is the needlework of choice. But we all know how to do it, and learning it seems to have been a matter of course, because I really don’t remember not knowing how. Until I was about 20, though, it was the other thing I did. I was primarily quilting and making garments then, but I wanted more of a challenge. A friend showed me counted cross stitch, and soon after that, I saw Sharon Cohen’s pieces in Just Cross Stitch and decided to try. JCS used to publish much more challenging pieces then, and I taught myself detached buttonhole, trellis, cutwork, etc. from those illustrations. I’m working to learn crewel now–if I can find the time! Of all the things that have been cut back since we started a family, I miss my stitching time the most.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
[...] R left this in the comments on “Hooked” from May 24, 2007 about how I got hooked on embroidery: I came from a family of knitters, quilters, [...]