Stitchy Things

This week I was at my in-laws' place, and while the boys were playing guitar in the next room, I shared with my mother-in-law my decision to try my hand at embroidery. She lead me into the spare bedroom and got out a whole stash of her own mother's embroidery from back in the 1950s! It was so awesome to see. There they were, all the stitches I've been looking at on all the websites and in all the books I've been getting out of the library. And they were perfect. Every stitch.

Then she went downstairs and brought up some framed pieces of embroidery from the storage room in the basement. She had a floral scene that she'd done, and a scene with peacocks that her mother had done. I took a million and one pictures. It was too cool.

My own mother learned to embroider back in high school and said she got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Like Trev's mom and grandmother, my mom no longer embroiders (these things go in and out of fashion - or time goes in and out of availability). But how neat is it to find three women in my family who've all done this same craft that I am so excited about learning?

Above is my mother-in-law's stitchwork. Very 70s! It's all on an olive-y green background.

A close-up of Oma's stitching. This was done back in the 1950s or 60s. She and Opa raised their family on a dairy farm, and this was stitched onto the fabric that had originally been the flour bag. Imagine - a big huge bag of flour, the bag converted into a decorative item for the home. Nowadays, turning something like a bag into something else (or more often, something else into a bag) is fashionable. Back then one was just being resourceful - it's what was done. A generalization, yes, but let me have it. I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy.

On Saturday I will be purchasing some embroidery things. Tonight I'm going to work like mad on Nana's crocheted blanket so I don't feel so guilty about starting a new craft/project.

Off I go to rest my weary sand-blasted feet (we played beach vball tonight, and the sand was QUITE saturated from the previous days' rain - it was like a constant exfoliation for the feet with every move. They're probably baby-soft right now, but I wouldn't know because I'm wearing socks. In July. Because it's cold out there.)