Here it is, World Embroidery Day, and I haven't threaded a needle . . . yet.
But I have been looking through the massive book, Tennessee Samplers: Female Education and Domestic Arts, 1800 - 1900.
If you're a sampler lover, you may just want to invest in this one. If you want to read the histories of the girls who made the samplers, you would enjoy it. If you want to support the study of samplers and help to make it a relevant research subject for historians, you should most definitely buy a copy.
Plus, it's pure eye candy. There are amazing, clear photographs of the samplers discovered over the past twenty years.
But, I hate to admit, the thing that absolutely entranced me were some of the photos of the reverse side of the samplers.
Some of those little girls were messy stitchers.
If you look closely--wow! Threads going every which way and ends sticking out all over the place and yet the fronts of the samplers look absolutely lovely.
I tend to be obsessive about having a neat back on my work, but, you know, maybe I could cut myself a little bit of slack once in awhile.
I've also been amazed at how many samplers have messy backs, I suppose it shows that it doesn't matter as much as we always think it should, I couldn't put up with it for myself, but it's obvious that it's not actually as important as we make it to be.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the sampler you're working on at present, I always look in on you and your work - you will need to live to about 250 to complete everthing you've shown us so far....... Elaine x
Messy backs make me crazy, so I try to keep them as neat as possible--although I will occasionally carry a thread if the distance isn't too great.
DeleteAnd I plan to live to be 385 . . . although my daughter says that acquisition is as much fun as actually using the projects. She gets to inherit it all one day--good thing we like a lot of the same things!
What a wonderful book you featured/shared, Ann!
ReplyDeleteThe photos are amazing--the histories of the girls are fascinating. I highly recommend it.
DeleteGreat book enjoy,
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing book--years of research and study all in one place.
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