My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Womanly Arts—Sewing and Embroidery

In my quest to get rid of some things, this beautiful vintage gown is on eBay here at the moment. I'm biting the bullet and putting this on there hoping it finds a wonderful home. I just can't take it to a thrift store. If you're interested in buying it directly from me, just email me and I'll take it off of eBay. I truly want it to go to someone who appreciates this sort of thing. It would look wonderful on a mannequin!

Growing up I didn't sew or do needlework or embroidery. It wasn't until later in life I found my love for embroidering. My mom was a professional woman. She didn't even know how to do anything encompassing the womanly arts. I learned to sew and embroider on my own. I love doing it but haven't for a long time now. So recently I looked and found my unfinished projects and embroidery threads because I wanted to do some new "fluffing" to some pillowcases.

You can see I'm partial to pink and green as evidenced in my previous post for Pink Saturday combining St. Patrick's Day with it. I have Irish heritage but a lot of other ancestors also so we don't particularly celebrate that holiday. I'm not much of a "holiday celebrator." I just look at it as another day except the banks are closed. ;-)

Threads of yarn separated and waiting for me to begin it again.

Another unfinished project.

This is my Ralph Lauren bag purchased many years ago to hold my projects and threadsl. I've since had to buy more tote bags to contain it all.

I believe this was my first book on teaching me the basics. I have some designs from here on pillowcases that are showing severe signs of wear and may need to redo them. I love this little book.

Perhaps I've waited too long to complete this one. I'll have to finish it before I can wash it properly now. Can't figure out how this got water damaged. Hmmmm...

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to finish them all.



And these are my colorful skeins of embroidery thread. To me, it's simply eye candy. I love looking at the colors. You see my preferences of colors from this photo.
~*~

8 comments:

  1. Your embroidery is simply lovely. Needlepoint & cross-stitch are the only hand crafts I like...maybe I'll make time for them this Winter here in Cape Town (it's been years since I picked up such things...) Sitting by the fire and reading or doing crafts sounds so soothing right now (no central heating anywhere though we could use it in the Cape come June-Aug). BUT, no time now! Gotta take 17 yr old daughter back to school for a Maths Olympiad practice! Through rush hour traffic no less......this is not fun and DEFINITELY not soothing!

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  2. Connie, I also learned a lot on my own because my mom couldn't teach me. I still have my cross stitch things and hope to get back to it someday. I love all the pretty projects that you have to do and I'm sure the water stain will come out. Thanks for sharing. Hugs, ,Pat

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  3. Frame the watercolor-esque aida cloth as is, without the stitching. I think it is rather lovely.

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  4. Hi Connie!
    I LOVE your white dress. How Beautiful it would be for a bridal gown for a simple garden wedding! "So Sweet"!
    I LOVE all you projects, I too have a trunk of them that I wonder if I'll finish. My eyes were better when I started them, NOW I will need heavy magnification to finish them, "UGH"!!!
    I agree you should frame the watercolor cloth, I is SO PRETTY like it is. Use it as a backdrop maybe for some other trinkets in front of it!
    I'm having my 1st GIVEAWAY!!! Stop by and enter @
    http://conghailecottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/conghaile-cottages-1st-giveaway.html
    Hugs to you Sweetie,
    Donna

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  5. What a beautiful gown, I hope it finds a nice home, bet it does! Love all of your embroidery projects, I have not worked on ant embroidery projects much since I learned to knit. I have to get back to it, I do enjoy it!

    Nancy

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  6. Hi Connie, I have had a terrible cold but today after a week I am feeling better. I need to catch up with your posts.

    Today's post makes me smile in a big way. I do not knit but I love to embroider. I have many unfinished projects as well. I really want to do each one and I know I will. The white dress is so beautiful. Surely someone will want it and quickly.

    I'm so with you wanting to finish your projects. JDI...just do it! That's what my son-in-law would say. HA!

    Wishing you energy and success in your plans to get things done.
    Hugs, Jeanne

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  7. You go girl! I'll never figure out how the ladies of yesteryear had time to embroider and embellish EVERY.THING. My grandma's washcloths, towels and sheets all had a crocheted or tatted edge on them. And, of course, her pillowcases were all embroidered. :-) Yowza.

    Have a great time chickie!

    Huggies,
    Spencer

    PS.... I don't think I'd put all that work into the water stained linen..... sometimes you just cannot get those stains out. It would be such a shame to put 4 million hours into it and then still have a stain. :-(

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  8. The white dress is really nice. I'm pretty sure my wife will love it. Hopefully, you'll be able to finish all your embroidery projects and be able to post all of them here. It's nice to know that there are still many women out there who loves traditional needlepoint crafts. Keep on posting!

    John Briner

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Comments are so nice and I thank all of you that leave one for me.