Embroidery Sampler
Embroidery Sampler
Many years ago my grandmother gave me a cigar box filled with embroidery floss in a wide range of colors: whole skeins, single strands, and many short lengths. Though I had never used a needle in this way, I was thrilled with all the color at my fingertips and my imagination went to work on how to put them to good use.
At the time, the margins of my school notebooks were brimming with doodles of patterns and concentric circles of patterns, so this design was a natural progression from a doodle to a textile. It gave me an opportunity to use all the small pieces of thread and to try this new art form.
For this project I had no instruction or reference book; either it didn't occur to me to seek one out, or an author had yet to compile a step-by-step encyclopedia of stitchery like the ones you can easily pick up today. So this was an experiment, a needle work sampler, filled with fabric stretching and puckers, inconsistencies, mistakes, and happy inventions, to be sure. I even used a spare fabric napkin, of unknown fiber content, for my canvas.
Once again the sampler method built my confidence with the needle, as well as my confidence in trying new things. When it was completed, I remember thinking , "Now what do I do with it?" But Mom was impressed enough to frame and hang it, an early example of her unconditional support of my efforts. Come to think of it, that's probably the biggest take-away from the experience... what a gift!
Many years ago my grandmother gave me a cigar box filled with embroidery floss in a wide range of colors: whole skeins, single strands, and many short lengths. Though I had never used a needle in this way, I was thrilled with all the color at my fingertips and my imagination went to work on how to put them to good use.
At the time, the margins of my school notebooks were brimming with doodles of patterns and concentric circles of patterns, so this design was a natural progression from a doodle to a textile. It gave me an opportunity to use all the small pieces of thread and to try this new art form.
For this project I had no instruction or reference book; either it didn't occur to me to seek one out, or an author had yet to compile a step-by-step encyclopedia of stitchery like the ones you can easily pick up today. So this was an experiment, a needle work sampler, filled with fabric stretching and puckers, inconsistencies, mistakes, and happy inventions, to be sure. I even used a spare fabric napkin, of unknown fiber content, for my canvas.
Once again the sampler method built my confidence with the needle, as well as my confidence in trying new things. When it was completed, I remember thinking , "Now what do I do with it?" But Mom was impressed enough to frame and hang it, an early example of her unconditional support of my efforts. Come to think of it, that's probably the biggest take-away from the experience... what a gift!
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