Thursday, February 17, 2011

Stitching with crochet thread

My Mom used to crochet doilies and edging for pillowcases back in the 50's. I have a few of her doilies and some other very worn linens that she had done. When she died I brought a few of her things home with me; one of them was a plastic baggie with old crochet threads that she had saved. I've had them now for over six years, got them out a couple of months ago and have been looking at them in the studio everyday. Today I decided it was time to play with them and used them to do some funky hand embroidery on some hand dyed silk broadcloth.


I bet if they still make this, it costs a lot more.


This is my collection, some are Coats and Clark, some Star and a few Lily brand. A few of them say tatting and crochet thread on the label.



My Mom also taught me to embroider way back in the 50's, she would not be happy with my irregular blanket stitch - she was a bit of a perfectionist. I, on the other hand , prefer things a bit imperfect!

4 comments:

  1. How wonderful to work with such treasured threads - I have my late grandmothers tacking thread which I love to use, but I will be so sad when it's all finished.

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  2. I'm surprised that I'm enjoying it so much, I to think I'll be sad when they're all gone.

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  3. When my mother died in 2007, I got a lot of her fabric, notions like bias tape & rick-rack with 10 cent price tags on them, zippers, most of her sewing scissors, and some knitting needles and crochet hooks. I learned to embroider from her mother, my grandmother, and I think they'd both be happy to know that I'm using the skills and materials handed down by them.

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  4. Imperfect is inclusive...
    it's beautiful to see these threads subsumed into your work.

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