Table of contents for September - October 2017 in PieceWork

My own lifelong connection to needlework is rooted in my family’s rich tradition of handwork. My childhood was filled with laughter and love in an extended family spanning four generations, whose members embroidered, sewed, knitted, crocheted, hooked rugs, and quilted. I spent countless hours watching them at work and playing with the fabrics, yarns, threads, and buttons. Especially buttons. My home state of Virginia had a number of button factories when I was a child. A great aunt and uncle indulged my button fascination with frequent trips to those factories to purchase buttons in quantity. I had more buttons, by far, than I could count. I adored sorting through them, arranging them by shape or color, rearranging them into different assortments, and doing it all over again. The best part…

At Rainbow Gallery we pride ourselves on having just what you need to bring that special cross stitch, needlepoint, embroidery or quilting project to life. One of our best sellers is Silk Lamé Braid. This versatile thread consists of Silk and Metallic filaments braided together to create one strand to use as is off the card. Silk Lamé Braid is available in 3 sizes including petite with a palette of over 200 beautiful colors. (818) 982-6406 www.rainbowgallery.com info@rainbowgallery.com Waverly Wool is Brown Sheep Company’s yarn designed specifically for needlepoint. With nearly 500 hues, you’ll be sure to find the right color for your creation. Waverly Wool can be ordered in small 8-yard hanks or full-sized hanks of 162 yards. (800) 826-9136 www.brownsheep.com Brand new lushly embroidered Tapestry Bags from Plymouth…

Eighty-two patches of brightly colored fabric make up this extensively adorned parlor throw. Lydia Pearl Finnell may have made this vibrant parlor throw for her trousseau. Also known as a “crazy quilt,” it exemplifies the fancy needlework techniques popular in the late nineteenth century. Lydia’s talents and schooling are reflected in her elaborate and well-executed interpretations. Highly decorated items, such as this, were often placed in the parlor to display the maker’s needlework skills. Lydia was born March 3, 1867, to William and Sarah Irvine Finnell in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. At the age of three (for unspecified reasons), she was sent to live with her Aunt Lize and Uncle Boley. They taught her social graces as well as housekeeping skills, cooking, animal husbandry, and some rudimentary doctoring skills. At the age…

I saw my first peacock when I was traveling in Mexico. I was at a restaurant, and several peacocks were walking around, at ease around people. They were gorgeous. Peacocks are members of the pheasant family, and are known as peafowl. Males are called “peacocks” and females “peahens.” The males are noted for their glorious, iridescent eye-spotted tail feathers. This set of feathers, called a “train,” which can be up to 6 feet (1.8 m) long and is fanned especially during mating, is shed once a year. These peacock slippers inspired by the birds and styled after a pair of my mother’s slippers from China are easy to knit. They are cozy, small, and great to take on your travels. Felting them adds thickness and warmth. The bead embroidery pays…

From Our Readers’ Hands Here is a pillowcase I made incorporating Mary Polityka Bush’s redwork garland pattern from the March/April 2011 issue and a crocheted edging. I love this red garland and have worked it three times. My Aunt Golden taught me to crochet when I was ten years old. The crocheted edging is from Crochet Edgings & Insertions from Early 20th Century Sources by Eliza A. Taylor and Belle Robinson (Berkeley, California: Lacis, 1996). I keep all the back issues of PieceWork and really enjoy the magazine. Via email Carole Wedman I fell in love with Carol Huebscher Rhoades’s Victorian baby blanket pattern from the July/August 2015 issue, and I hoped one day there would be someone to knit it for. The opportunity arrived this year with the arrival…

Ancient Greeks believed that nine deities called Muses were the source of all knowledge and inspired artistic creation. Museums, homes for the muses, hold knowledge waiting to be discovered, and their collections inspire creators in all realms of art and science. Hand-embroidered mittens exhibited at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (the “Wing”) in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District inspired this story about the mittens, their maker, and her family. In 1943, Amy Yoshi Hara’s mother embroidered whimsical floral designs onto a pair of plain Army-issue woolen mittens for her. Amy saved her mother’s embroidered mittens and in 1992 donated them to the Wing. Though quiet and unassuming, the embroidered mittens now contribute to an exhibition that tells one American story of persistence and determination under adverse circumstances.…

Inspired by the preceding article The bold beauty of Casalguidi’s signature components and stitches take center stage in this classic white-on-pastel project. Foremost among the traditional elements identifying a piece of Casalguidi embroidery is the bastone (stick)—a heavily padded, three-dimensional composite of simple stitches referred to collectively as the Casalguidi stitch. The bastone can be worked in a straight or curved line, crisscrossed, or formed into a circle to create a definitive anchoring point for a design. Other characteristic Casalguidi stitches rise above the surface of the fabric to form naturalistic elements that loop and curl seductively to beckon closer inspection. Although all of the stitches used in Casalguidi embroidery are basic to the embroiderer’s repertoire, patient practice is essential in perfecting them. MATERIALS • DMC Pearl Cotton, 100% cotton…

beg—begin(s); beginning BO—bind off CC—contrasting color ch—chain cir—circular cn—cable needle CO—cast on cont—continue(s); continuing dc—double crochet dc3tog—double crochet 3 stitches together dec(s) (’d)—decrease(s); decreased; decreasing dpn—double-pointed needle(s) fsc—foundation single crochet foll—follow(s); following hdc—half double crochet inc(s) (’d)—increase(s); increased; increasing k—knit k1b—knit 1 in back of stitch k1f&b—knit into the front and back of the same stitch—1 stitch increased k2b—knit 2 in back of next 2 stitches kwise—knitwise; as if to knit k2tog—knit 2 stitches together k3tog—knit 3 stitches together k5tog—knit 5 stitches together LLI—insert left needle into back of the stitch below stitch just knitted, knit this stitch lp(s)—loop(s) m(s)—marker(s) MC—main color M1—make one (increase) M1k—increase 1 by knitting into the front and then the back of the same stitch before slipping it off the left-hand needle M1p—increase 1 by…

EXHIBITIONS Los Angeles, California: Through December 22. Fashion Philanthropy: The Linda and Steven Plochocki Collection, at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Museum. (213) 623-5821; www.fidmmuseum.org. San Francisco, California: Through November 12. Stepping Out: Shoes in World Cultures, at the SFO Museum in the San Francisco International Airport. (650) 821-6700; www.flysfo.com/museum. District of Columbia: September 30–January 29, 2018. The Box Project: Uncommon Threads, at George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. (202) 994-5200; www.museum.gwu.edu. Melbourne, Florida: September 16–December 16. Cloth as Community: Hmong Textiles in America, at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at the Florida Institute of Technology. (321) 674-8313; http://textiles.fit.edu. Boston, Massachusetts: Through August 19, 2018. Past Is Present: Revival Jewelry, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (617) 267-9300; www.mfa.org. New York, New…

Inspired by the preceding article A pair of mittens hand-embroidered in a World War II (1939–1945) Japanese internment camp inspired my pattern for gaman mittens. Gaman means to persevere with dignity under adverse circumstances. I learned the word “gaman” from an exhibition of objects made by former Japanese internees and from the book on which the exhibition was based, The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942–1946 (Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2005). The original mittens can be seen on exhibit at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (the “Wing”) in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District. The mittens at the Wing were manufactured Army-issue but hand-embroidered, using cotton embroidery floss, no doubt working with materials available in the camp. I chose to…

I am a big fan of Chinese film, and Curse of the Golden Flower, written and directed by Zhang Yimou and released in 2006, is a favorite. It’s the story of a royal family in turmoil, fighting over the throne. The emperor wishes for his eldest son, the crown prince, from his first marriage to succeed him. The empress wants her eldest, the second son, to inherit the throne. The empress has been having an affair with the crown prince, which her younger son has knowledge of and hopes to exploit in his own attempt to gain the title. In preparation for an attempt at a military coup by her eldest son during the Chrysanthemum Festival, the Empress sews a chrysanthemum for each of her troops to wear so that…

Inspired by the preceding article The idea of reimagining the Arts and Crafts Movement in our time was the inspiration behind this modern filet-crochet shawl. Much as John Henry Dearle, assistant to William Morris, was inspired by seventeenth-century Italian designs and reinvented them for some of his work for Morris and Company, I took Dearle’s popular Rose and Lily wallpaper design and reinvented it for our time. This rectangular shawl stays true to classic filet crochet, using void and filled spaces to create a pattern. The modern invention is all in the material: a wonderfully vibrant silk-blend yarn. The resulting project moves and drapes. Named after William Morris’s first daughter, Jane Alice, I like to imagine a modern young version of her wearing this shawl with jeans to the local…

Inspired by the preceding article My inspiration for this holiday ornament came from a handpainted antique Berlin-work pattern from my collection. Published by Heinrich Kuehn in the 1880s, pattern #5949 has eight small animal-head designs. Although probably intended for a pair of men’s slippers, I thought that the reindeer looked quite perfect for a holiday ornament. While not much is known about Heinrich Kuehn’s printing house, it appears that his early patterns were produced at Scharrenstrasse 17, at the corner of the Petriplatz, in Berlin in the 1850s. Some patterns, like this one, have the address of Scharrenstrasse 19, printed on them, indicating that the company may have expanded or moved to the adjacent building. In 1883, the business was still located at the Petriplatz, but the Kuehn family had…

African Textiles: Color and Creativity Across a Continent John Gillow New York: Thames & Hudson, 2016. Softbound, 240 pages, $29.95. ISBN 978-0-500-29221-1. Estonian Knitting 1: Traditions and Techniques Anu Pink, Siiri Reimann, Kristi Joeste Türi, Estonia: Saara Publishing House, 2016; distributed by Lacis, Berkeley, California. Hardbound, 300 pages, $90. ISBN 978-9949-9782-0-5. Sherlock Knits: Patterns Inspired by the Worlds Most Famous Consulting Detective Joanna Johnson; illustrations Laurel Johnson Loveland, Colorado: Slate Falls Press, 2016. Softbound, 48 pages, $12.95. ISBN 978-0-578-18544-6. Solveig Larsson’s Knitted Mittens: Over 40 Wearable Patterns Inspired by the Landscape, Legends, and Lasting Traditions of Northern Sweden Solveig Larsson North Pomfret, Vermont: Trafalgar Square Books, 2015. Hardbound, 112 pages, $22.95. ISBN 978-1-57076-702-9. Traditional Weavers of Guatemala: Their Stories, Their Lives Deborah Chandler and Teresa Cordón Loveland, Colorado: Thrums, 2015.…