Or comments, really.

Thanks, Jane, for your note. Jane’s from the UK and was curious about our UK stitcher, all of whom were in the US for the Celebrations of Needlework in Nashua, NH, which I believe wraps up tomorrow. I don’t know offhand where Sarah and Susan are from, but I’ll look it up when I get back to the office. Susan has an online needlework shop, Hanging by a Thread, (the shop’s address is London, so there’s a clue) and has been so generous about spreading news of the project. Sarah is Susan’s sister, and they look enough alike that I was having trouble keeping their names straight, though in my defense they were at first introduced to me by the other’s name, so after that I had no chance at all. Anne is Robbin’s mother-in-law (Robbin of the laptop grant, the lacemaking, the thistle calyxes, the gorgeous antique lace wedding veil, and the great photos). I’m pretty sure the information on where the blog hits come from exists, but I would have to go looking for it. (Yah. Who am I kidding? By “looking for” I mean “ask Rich”.) I know coral-seas is in the UK. She returned our first overseas sample, and writes a delicious needlework blog here. Our other international stitcher is Lyn. She comes from Ontario, Canada, and has come down to Plymouth several times now. She’s doing the repro of the Bosworth sampler.

And, in the comments a few days ago (I eventually get there) coral-seas asked if the jacket embroidery pattern has a repeat. The answer is yes, the master repeat is four motifs high and four across. Tricia told the story of discovering the repeat early in the blog - June 2 and June 3, to be exact, (and I can be exact both quickly and easily thanks to Lyn’s awesome index - Thanks, Lyn!).

It’s a great story, like a historical detective yarn. Or floss. Just kidding. Anyway, there’s a panel in the collection of the Embroiderers’ Guild in the UK which is so extremely similar to the 1359-1900 jacket in the V&A (the embroidery design source for our jacket) that they must have come from the same workshop. Examining the photos of the jacket and the panel and fiddling with the motifs for our design, Tricia had a “eureka!” moment and saw the repeat.

The four-by-four repeat is most visible on the back. Tricia worked the original motifs on the back, the ones she stitched in order to illustrate the directions for the instruction manuals. So at that first session the back was the only one with embroidery on it.

I have another great story in my pocket, so to speak, actually, in the laptop. I accidentally left some pictures at the office over the weekend; I will get at them Monday and start the next “bite” then. Tomorrow hopefully I’ll have some different visual treat.

to the Loudoun Sampler Guild! They sent a $250 donation to the Textile Conservation Fund!

This is even more wonderful when you know this story - the original estimate to conserve “EC” was about $3800. The Mayflower Sampler Guild donated $1000 specifically to conserve “EC” which kicked off the Textiles Conservation Fund shortly after the new year. Then, not too long after, the Swan Sampler Guild made their largest single donation yet - $2500 to conserve “EC”.

Karin was thinking that, even though the initial estimate was a little higher than we had in hand, we should just go ahead and “scrape up the leftover somewhere.” I seconded her thought and she made an appointment with a conservator.

And then this showed up, completely and totally out of the blue! And such a fortuitous amount, too. Thank you, thank you, Loudoun Sampler Guild!

Today we had our first UK stitcher on the jacket, and our second, and our third! Sarah, Susan and Anne are all here for Celebrations of Needlework in Nashua, NH this weekend. They came by, with stalwart stitcher and lacer Robbin for the day to stitch on the jacket and visit the shop. It was a pleasure to meet them all. I hope they have an excellent time this weekend and enjoy the stitching.

Tricia was here, too, and she brought new sets of directions for the instruction manuals - we now have directions for the strawberry flower and the rose, to go with the ones for the pansy we got last time. She’s working on the prototype for the columbine, which I’ve been fascinated with from the beginning - it may finally force me to try working with the GST just so I can work one!

Last session Linda joined us for Saturday. She lives locally, but not too local, so it was a bit of a drive each way. Linda used to work at Plimoth, about 35 years ago, before the program was consistently first person (which is when the interpreters pretend to be people from the past).

Linda took a walk through the Village in the afternoon and was a little dismayed to see how very different everything is now. We’ve learned so much about the past, the architecture, the material culture, the clothing, the world view, the foodways, in those years, that of course the exhibit would change, but it was a little disappointing nonetheless, not to find anything familiar.

I was very glad Linda had come, and she brought some great show & tell embroideries. Here are just a couple of photos, of a counted thread huswife and the stitched accessories that go with. I think it was the “L” pincushion (or maybe something else?) that started a discussion about whether each of us could find our names on those displays of personalized key chains and pencils and bicycle name plates that were so popular in the 70s. I could occasionally find “Jill” but so often not that those few times were a real treat. I remember Abigail said she never could find her name, which is funny given how common that name is now. I think Bryce said she never even expected to find hers. All sorts of interesting topics come up while your hands are busy with the embroidery and lace.

I hope you’re having as excellent a time this week as I am. It’s school vacation week and I’m officially Not In The Office, although I am checking emails every morning which is hardly a burden. We’re having absolutely golden weather here in southeastern MA, sunny and warm with a light breeze. Fantastic.

Today I have eye candy for you, the fruits of Susan’s needlework skills, or some of them anyway, that she brought for show & tell at the April session. That first picture is a lovely assortment of different techniques.

The second is really amazing. It looked vaguely familiar to me, and when I turned it over and saw she’d only picked up threads on the surface of the fabric it looked even more familiar. She said it was Swedish darning (ooh, I hope I remembered that name right!) but was also called huck embroidery. Huck was the name I was thinking of when I saw it, but it was finer than I’d seen. Susan said she’d never seen any in person when she made that, and only later realized that sort of embroidery was usually done on a much larger scale. It looks great, though, doesn’t it?

Have another great day tomorrow.

And I even know what that is! And I can add links, which I’ve been doing, a little at a time as I remember where your blog is. I know lots more of you have blogs, would you send me a note or a link and I’ll add them?

Thanks for the dental floss needle threader idea, Norma; I’ll get us some of those and see if they work.

Here’s a picture for tonight, from last session’s show & tell. Abigail made this, it’s a ribbon corset. She told me a little about ribbon corsets, if I’m remembering rightly it was a fashion in the 19th century. It’s just gorgeous, and not just because I’m a sucker for Red. I’m constantly amazed and delighted by the variety of skills and talents all you dedicated needleworkers bring to show & tell and put up on your blogs. Thank you for sharing.