It's National Embroidery Month!

February is National Embroidery Month!

Who Knew? Not me.

But I read it on Facebook so it must be true!

I love embroidery.

I love to embroider.

I love to peruse patterns.

I love to combine patterns.

I love to play with the colors of embroidery floss.

From wikipedia:

"Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. Embroidery is most often recommended for caps, hats, coats, blankets, dress shirts, denim, stockings, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available with a wide variety of thread or yarn color.

A characteristic of embroidery is that the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest work—chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch—remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today."

Embroidery has been around as long as humans have worn clothing or thereabouts.

Evidently there are samples of embroidery that have survived since the 5th Century BC! 

I couldn't find pics of that.

From The Textile Blog's flickr site - this is from the 

Bayeux tapestry circa 1099!

Embroidery was often reserved for the wealthy and for clerical garments like this from the 1200s: 

 

As time passed more folks caught the embroidery bug and created practical mementos and beautiful works.

Samplers were especially popular like this one from 1805.

 

All of these photos and many more can be found on 

The Textile Blog's flickr page.  

Check out their blog and flickr pages. 

Prepare to be amazed.

My [Grand]Mama taught me how to embroider by hand before I was allowed to even think about touching a sewing machine.

I still have a big denim pocketbook on which I embroidered my initials and a huge snail - way back in the early 1970's!

(It's around here somewhere. Will find it and post a pic.) 

Come back Wednesday and I'll jabber about different styles/forms of embroidery and where you can learn how to or brush/renew your skills.!

Friday, I'll list some of my favorite shops that carry patterns, threads and finished products!

Let me know if you have a fave shop and/or instructional website and I'll share that too.