Needlepoint

I must confess I have done only a few things in needlepoint over the years.

While we lived in London, I bought at auction two 18th Century Queen Ann armchairs for a song. Their seats were covered with two layers of silk . The cushions themselves were stuffed with padding and a fine straw. I've left it all intact since it speaks to the age of the chairs.

I decided to needlepoint new seats, but didn't like most of the patterns available. Then I hit on the idea of doing the crests for each of my parent's families.

This is the Manchester crest. Now, I don't know if this is exactly correct.

Some years previously, I was sent a gold pin with the crest design on it by one of my Newport, R.I. family research contacts. So I learned the language of the registry of arms to find out what colors should go on the crest and painted the canvas as a guide to doing the work.

The motto at the bottom is Disponendo me non mutandome.

Meaning roughly, "You're not going to be able to change me; you'll have to kill me." (Dispense of me; don't mutate me.)

I'm still looking for a Roper crest. It would have to be a lozenge shape, which will be difficult to fit onto the seat area. So far I've found two separate Roper designs, but haven't a clue whether the family even had one.

Meanwhile, the seat will just have to be covered with a sailboat print.

Some Old Weavings

Once upon a time, I bought an antique loom from a lady in Arkansas. It was handmade sometime between maybe as early as 1840 to maybe 1880. Not a very complicated loom, it had linen heddles and two harnesses made of well-worn wooden handmade slat pieces. The original reed was lashed bamboo spacers. But enough about that.......I'll post a picture of it assembled when I can find my photo of it. (it's disassembled now and in storage.)

This is one of the first things I wove on the loom.

I later made lots and lots of rag rugs. Sold many (that was before the flood if rugs from India hit the stores.) I was very cavalier about giving them away, using them and running them through the washing machine mercilessly.

I saved a few along with one heirloom rug I inherited. They are now reposing in a storage chest.

This is a lot of experimenting with the same weft fibers plus some additions.

Two more:

Embroidery

Sadly, I don't have this shirt any more--totally wore it to death. It was old. Made in the era of embellished denim shirts. (If you click on the photo, the large slide will come up. Sorry about the debris on the slide; it's also old.)

I invented the design based a bit on old Pennsylvania/Dutch dowry chest paintings and English crewel work. And the feather stitch seam highlighting was another trick I dreamed up. I would rather invent my own designs than copy something else; it's far more interesting all the way around.

Haven't done a lot of embroidery lately, but am a big fan of white on white. It's best to do that when you have good, bright sunlight.

My Grandmother Manchester was a wonderful embroiderer. She taught me the basic stitches when I was a very young child. Even showed me how to do couched stitches and padded work. The first thing I ever made was a small scarf of cotton with the outline of a Schnauzer-type dog. I still have it.

Bright Nine Patch

I love stripes in quilts.

I made this simple Nine Patch a few years ago and am going to reference it again with another set of primary colored blocks.

I'll use the narrow strip trick to set off the square and add punch to the design.

Most of the handquilting is done in the ditch instead of on top of the squares so they appear puffier and stand alone as square forms.

So far, I haven't caved to the machine quilting method and prefer to hand do all the quilting on my work.