This one is so elegant, IMHO.

While fiddling with this pic before putting it up I noticed a very tiny bit of stitching on the far left hand leaf, left hand side – OMG – a microscopic mend, to cover an inadvertent slip of the scissors, I imagine. Absolutely sharp scissors are needed to cut away the fbric behind the stitchery after it is done, but you also need to hold your breath, or get your facial expression right while doing it. Accidents are easy to have if you are weary or interrupted in this kind of work, and if this was a little slip of a snip, I can imagine the maker being very pissed off, especially if she was being paid piecework rates. She may have held her breath and hoped the supervisor didn’t notice. Or perhaps this piece was a reject, for this reason.

So then I went back and looked at the others I bought the same day – but couldn’t find mends on any of them.

Today I will be starting quilting on a piece which has a lot of leather applique, and will post a pic tomorrow. There, that’s commitment. A house guest for a few days arrived yesterday declaring that while her husband has business today, she herself would love the chance to just curl up with a book and have a quiet day … bewdie, Marilyn. 

With family visitors and some health problems in the family too, none of my time has been my own for the past couple of weeks, really – although I have realised that I need to have a hand sewing project ready to go for what I am sure will be regular waiting in waiting rooms in the future – so i am all ready to head out the door next time with some Expressive Stitchery to do on a couple of silk hand dyed scarves.

So, while little quilting work is being done, here is one of several little gems I gathered up recently, for a couple of US $ each, in the Plaza Matriz, where every saturday antique and second hand markets operate. A lovely few hours can be easily spent here, and there is also music and tango dancing most weekends, too – new bars and restaurants springing up around what is becoming more of tourist zone. This is one of several insert pieces done in exquisite needle made lace motifs for putting into high class table linen. Era probably early C20th, judging by the state of the yellowed linen and the design. Things of beauty give joy for ever stuff.

A recent find in the antique markets, just a couple of weeks ago, is this beautfiful Swiss organdie collar. I feel it was from the 30’s, and the lady on the stall confirmed this was the period from which it came.

The fabric is very fine, and because it has never been worn or washed, still stiff. Unfortunately, it has a history, which we cannot know, that is revealed in the stains in parts, possible water damage, but perhaps from being in a drawer or a suitcase which transferred oils or other stuff to it over time.

The price ticket, hand tacked to the underside, showing ” 3 – 40 ” very faintly could mean 3.4 pesos, but were they Argentine or Uruguayan, since on the other was wording in spanish to say it was made in Switzerland, therfore possibly for export to Latin America but it might have been bought in Spain… but anyway this ticket is another sign it was never worn by the intending wearer. A beautiful thing, makes you wonder why it was never worn – it would be smashingly elegant over the little basic black dress………. 

Some of the staining and the price ticket, tailor tacked to the underside, can be seen more clearly. I think the binding is machined, not hand done.

Clearly the piece was bought, put way but never worn. Many quiltmakers would relate to this phenomenon, when they think of the fabrics stashed away in their house…. 

My own examples of stitchery from this workshop included these four little pieces, about 8″ square.

We had to design and sew a small piece each day, two layers of fabric, outline the image in chain stitch and then infill the image, its background, and, once we learned about borders, apply this knowledge in some way to what we were doing.

Some even managed to finish off the edges of their pieces. In my own defence, I must say I did another one in addition to these, which I traded to Tracey W. in a dyeing class who ran through a couple of silk scarves for me….I have plans to stitch them Kantha-style. On the other hand, they have come out beautifully blotchy, I might not obscure them with stitchery…

I don’t remember exactly how we were to search around for design motifs, so can’t tell you exactly WHY the roos, and the gum leaves and nut, all national symbols to an Aussie anyway, but the other was in response to one direction we were given to design something embodying a wish you have. Apparently, the Kantha women embody hopes, plans and dreams into their works.

Next is a collage of details of a beautiful old piece of hand made broderie anglaise, age unknown, approx 200cm x 43cm, which I bought on a market stall down on Tristan Navaja one sunday several years ago. It has been removed from something – possibly a priest’s robe – it still has a fine lawn placket attached at one point…. and the US$7-50 price tag is still attached.

The Expressive Stitch workshop also addressed the matter of mending, too, and we were asked to take some examples along, and also some examples of hand sewn fabric of either decorative or purely functional nature. Dorothy had a number of wonderful old mended garments, and this piece of broderie anglaise had a couple of mends, one nice and neat, the other pretty slapdash, in a hurry perhaps.