Patchwork

I bought this beautiful piece of old patchwork at the Manchester Vintage Textile Fair last weekend. It is made up of tiny black velvet triangles interspersed with coloured silks and prints. These are special days out for me and textile friend Jayne Emma Bone. We share a passion for "old rags" and lunch out. This time we had lunch at the Whitworth Art Gallery, easily found nearby with the help of the SatNav. The next big fair  is organised by the Textile Society and is on March 7th 2010 (www.textilesociety.org.uk).

Sample book

I started making this sample book many years ago. I have cut up old bits of domestic hand embroidery and sewn them into a book. I find it a useful reference tool when I am stuck for a stitch. In some cases I have deliberately sewn the fragment in back to front as I find the random marks on the back just as interesting.

Tea time embroidery

I have quite a collection of embroidered tray cloths, table cloths and napkins. They are all painstakingly embroidered by women from the past using traditional stitches such as lazy daisy, chain stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch and button hole stitch. I have gathered them together in colour stories and here is what I have done with what I call the Clarice Cliff palette. I have been doing the applique by hand in the sun room  surrounded by ripening squash from the allotment, the colours appropriately echo those of the stitch.

From this.........

to this.........

I am in the process of embellishing a man's jacket or "womanising" it as a workshop student said last night!

Greetings from....

Suffolk puff sample made from old souvenir handkerchiefs. The back is as interesting as the front. I've run out of hankies now but am looking forward to finding more on Saturday at the Ilkley Vintage Fair.

and this shapely mannequin

I also found this old mannequin at the back of a shop. She has a very shapely bottom and there are lovely stitch details. 

Some new old threads purchased in Lewes at the weekend.

To take one spool out of the box would just spoil the perfect symmetry. I admit to buying these for the packaging.