Hello Winter---Goodbye 2024

 

Brew me a cup for a winter's night.

For the wind howls loud, and the furies fight;

Spice it with love and stir it with care,

And I'll toast your bright eyes, my sweetheart fair.

Minna Thomas Antrim, "A Night Cap," A Book of Toasts, 1902

Winter has come and the end of the year is almost here.  I hope with the coming new year I will have many projects stitched and finished.  

Here's wishing  you a very merry Christmas and a very peaceful new year!

blessings, always, Kathleen

"When you do something beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. 

For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet, most of the audience still sleeps."

                                                                         John Lennon

 

Thread crochet and crochet edging

 

I have quite a few wonderful vintage crochet booklets covering patterns for crochet edgings. Through the years I have been selecting a pattern to crochet a length of edging and place it into a box with the pattern name, page number, and the date when I crocheted it.  This is a great reference if  I should want to place crocheted edging on a project of linen.

The above photo is from a 1941 booklet and I thought the Hibiscus pattern looked so pretty.

I started crocheting and instantly liked this pattern and made a short length of it.

This is fairly wide and would be lovely for the edge of a tablecloth or curtain.

So tell me.......what are your hands busy creating? I would love to hear!

Happy Thanksgiving

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation

 is not to utter words but to live by them. 

                                      John F. Kennedy, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1963

 

Happy Halloween!

Gnome and elf and fairy,

Witch and ghost make merry

On this last of dear October's days.

Lettie C. Van Derveer, Halloween Happenings, 1921

 

Let your worries slip away with every  stitch.

                                    

 

For Giving.....

 

Whenever someone comes to visit......be it friends or family, 

I like to open my "linen drawer" that is in a space in an old Hoosier cabinet

in my kitchen and offer them an embroidered dishtowel and matching crochet dishcloth

that I have made to take back home with them. 

I have let my stash of give aways dwindle down and now I am in the process of making more applique, embroidered, and crocheted items to be able to give away.

I decided to make a simple applique towel with a teacup design

and then added some embroidered vine and an appliqued small "broderie perse " 

flower spray.

I added some embroidery to the teacups 

and stitched a simple edging to the towel and then crocheted a matching dishcloth.

I also like to add a cookbook for a special occasion.

I have added some pretty fabric on some of the dish towels.  I plan to 

embroider something in the middle of each. 

 I never have a steady flow of visitors, which gives me time to get a stash accumulated. 

Since covid....I have noticed that the giving of handmade gifts has grown  ........yet

some do not like to offer handmade........and some do not like receiving handmade .

I am thrilled with a handmade gift.  For me, it says, the gift came from the heart.

How about you?  What are your thoughts of giving or receiving handmade gifts?

I would love to hear! 

Vivid colors and inspiration

 

came to me while we were on our adventures in Washington/Oregon and Hawaii. I decided before the plane landed in our home area that I was going to work an applique project. 

Now that our traveling had ended and I have settled back into a normal daily routine of a quiet life, I have returned to my creative space and picked up my lonely needle. I am catching up on some 

"gift embroidery" but I want to start to work on the images and colors I saw while on our trips.

I have turned to this book of wonderful applique patterns......or should I say.....the patterns are on the CD included.  This book is "Mi Amor, Legacy Applique by Margarete Heinisch.(2014)  You will need to  have a CD reader if you want to work patterns from this book.  I was at first frustrated about this because at the time I ordered this book, I did not have a CD reader and I did not realize the patterns were not tucked into the book as I am usually accustomed to.  However, CD readers are easy to find and easy to plug into your computer and the CD is well filled with lovely patterns.  

The book itself is well written with clear instructions and inspiring photographs of each project. I do not plan to applique the whole patterns in this book.......I just want to use some of the flower patterns for my project I am dreaming up. 
 Not many are visiting here at this blog any longer and I miss your visits and your comments. When I traced back through the years on this blog and visited your blogs.....so many have not posted in years and some blogs are no longer there.  I hope that somehow you return and tell me what your busy hands have been creating!  I would love to hear from you!

Hawaii

 I'm going to have a vacation!

      I'll leave all my housework behind,

      And not have to do any cooking;

      I'll forget all the daily grind!

I'll bask in the sunshine—don't worry!—

      And so all the things that are right;

      I'll enjoy myself every minute,

      And I'll go to a dance each night!

But when my vacation is over

      And I pack my glad rags, alone,

      I'll be happy—so very happy!—

      For, really, there's no place like home!

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "My Vacation," 1940s

We are back home........but I think upon Waimea Bay and the time we spent swimming and basking in the sun there.

Perseverance

 

And now...........a finish!

Mushrooms In My Garden

We have been off on an adventure

 

 I left my needle and thimble behind and wandered away

to a land of waterfalls

and forests.  I have returned with inspiration in my heart. 

So back to stitching I go!

As far back as I can remember

 

I have always had a love for embroidered linens and the art of hand embroidery.

As the years swept by, I found myself deep in a pile of wonderful vintage linens that were either handed down to me or that I had found in some shop as I went along my way.  There were also vintage pre- stamped linens still in wonderful shape waiting for embroidery and crochet edging. I have a large amount of those that I have hand embroidered and have hand crocheted edges to. 

Along with all of that, I have always wanted a vintage shop where I could sell these vintage linens along with lovely vintage dishware.  That is how my shop and blog 

"Yesteryear Embroideries" began.

This year I have focused on working on some of the pre- stamped linens to offer in my shop.........hopefully towards the holiday season . I decided to work on this 3 piece vanity dresser set this month.

I chose red and blue  floss for the floral embroidery

and black floss for the lattice work embroidery.  I chose a crochet edge pattern from a 1943 crochet booklet that I like. 

Now this set is finished

and it looks great on an antique vanity dresser.  However, I encourage everyone to use the linens to accomplish the look the way they want in their own homes.  There are so many ways this 3 piece set can be used throughout the home. 

The days here have been pretty.  So many things are in bloom or have wild berries on them.

I would love to hear what you are working on. Here's wishing you pretty spring days ahead!

 

Embroidered Mushrooms and a chat about Helen M Stevens

 It's a lovely rainy day here.  After a rain has come our way, I am eager to go out after the rain has stopped and when the sun has started to warm the damp ground in search of the wild mushrooms that grow here. 

These delightful little fungi always inspire me to find my needle, gather my floss,

and try to capture their image in stitches. 

On this particular piece that I have started, I strayed away from what normally grows here on the grounds and chose different shades of red. I love the red and white mushrooms 

that Gnomes are usually hanging around. (the design I found on the internet and I am sorry that I  do not know who the artist is) 

However, this particular mushroom that I find occasionally growing, 

was on my mind when I was ready to begin to stitch the second mushroom.

I stitched the second mushroom in these dark colors. I have much more

that I want to stitch on this piece before I and call it "finished" 

so I will be showing you that hopefully on my next post. 

Now.......I would like to chat a little about the talented  stitching of 

Helen M. Stevens.

For all of you who work embroidery, you know the type stitching that I worked on the 

mushrooms are basically just a simple short and long stitch.  And many of 

you already know that many well known embroiderers have many books on this subject.

For this post, I would like to chat about Helen M Stevens. First, I will give you this link 

HELEN M STEVENS

 One only needs to type in her name to find out more about her and to look at her lovely work. I will place this statement about Helen M Stevens which can be found on her "ABOUT" section:

 "Helen created the True Embroideries Studio in 1981 to concentrate on aspects of embroidery which were, at the time, undervalued and little understood: "narrative" embroidery, representational work in traditional, even ancient, techniques encompassing a contemporary twist; techniques which allowed them to be accessible to modern audiences."

I discovered Helen M Stevens when a picture of one of her lovely embroideries popped up on my search screen of my computer.  I have only one book of hers, which I love dearly and constantly turn to as a helpful resource for many things I want to embroider. 

This book is titled 

"Helen M Stevens Embroiderer's Year.

I would encourage all of you to grab a needle and floss and just try the short and long stitch technique. It brings what you embroider to life! 

I also encourage everyone to keep resource books in your library, whether you stitch, quilt,

crochet, knit, or paint.   Books are a wonderful teacher and treasure! 

Now, tell me what you are busy creating! I would love to hear!

 

Wishing you a happy Easter

 

“Easter is the only time when it’s perfectly safe to put all your eggs in one basket.”

                                                                          Evan Esar

UPDATE Calico Cosmos

If you visited my previous post, I showed a link for an easy

applique method.....I will share it here one more time

Applique the Jilly Way

I have now finished the embroidery that I wanted to do with the 

applique flowers.  I love to add spider and web whenever I can.

 

Fabric, Floss, and Inspiration

 

Here in Texas, the temperature for these February days have been 84 to 86 degrees! The Italian Jasmine in full bloom and these very pretty days

have gotten me wanting to do some kind of project in a spring flower theme.

The cosmos of my earlier gardens came to mind.

While browsing Pinterest, I came upon this wonderful applique link that I want to share with you

Applique the Jilly Way  I hope you enjoy this. 

 Her technique is wonderful for getting small petals and leaves ready for applique. 

I decided I want to applique cosmos in different calico prints.

I followed what her video showed and in no time, I had enough petals and stems

ready for my project.  Cosmos do not have petal shaped leaves .  Their leaves are long and thin. I will embroider those on later. 

I did not have the glue that is used  in the video to tac the pieces in 

place so I baste stitched the pieces.  I did not want to use regular

craft glue. 

Now I have the flowers appliqued into place.  I am not yet finished with this piece. I will be adding embroidery to the flowers and a few other details as I go along. Hopefully by the time I return back here, I will have a lovely piece to show you.

Do you do applique?  What do you like to applique?.....birds, animals, or flowers? 

I would love to hear. 

Valentine's Day Wishes

 

Who, being loved, is poor?  

    Oscar Wilde

Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day!

A new year, new ideas, with some old projects

 The new year is moving along at a rapid pace with the hours, the days, the weeks, all going by so quickly.

I have some new ideas for new projects this year, but I am also still working on last year's and other year's past projects. 

The cross stitch kit, "Peacock Tapestry" is a kit I have had stashed away for over

30 years and finally decided to start working on it last year.  I got sidetracked and placed it aside, 

but I started back  to stitching on it after Christmas and now, a peacock has started showing himself among the pear trees. My goal is to get this piece finished by the end of this year.  

This, at first glance, this looks odd, but it is something that I started about 4 years ago, 

put away, forgot about, and then came upon it this past summer as I was

clearing out my clutter.  What I have tried to achieve in the embroidery is a 

whimsical dark cloud blowing icy air that is forming into snowflakes...(made with white stitches and white seed beading)

that are drifting down into the bare woods.  

it's all part of a Christmas Theme miniature crazy quilt that I wanted to put together

using the different pretty Christmas fabric scraps that I have.

like this particular piece with vintage Christmas ornaments.

I have been embroidering on it this past week. 

I had actually started the quilt top with the candle embroidery that I had once designed and embroidered and wanted to find a way to use it for something.  For right now, I will be showing you the surface embroidery that I will be working on in different areas of the quilt top as I progress.  Then it will

be time to work crazy quilt stitches along the borders of each fabric piece.  So this will not be a quick finish......but a slow stitch and mostly for those days when I don't want to focus on counting with the cross stitch peacock.  Can you believe??........I almost considered throwing this into the trash along with another mini quilt top I had been working on.  I am so glad I decided not to.   I think at that time I was just in a "super clean and clear mode".  But thankfully, seeing the embroidery I had already stitched on it, me stop to think.....so I placed it back into a box. 

Which prompts this question to you......  Have you started working on something, after a while, decided you did not like it , and just tossed it away....and then regretted doing so?  

I would love to hear. Hope this finds all of you staying warm and creative.